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60-531: The name "Yoka Lokole", in lingala , means "listen to the lokole", where the lokole is a traditional log drum in the area of the Congo River . Yoka Lokole was founded as a consequence of a split of another prominent soukous band, Evoloko Jocker 's Isifi Lokole . In November 1975, Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo and Bozi Boziana left Isifi after a quarrel with Jocker. Two other Isifi members, Shora Mukoko and Otis Koyongonda , followed Wemba, Somo, and Boziana in

120-584: A language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu peoples of Central , Southern , Eastern and Southeast Africa . They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages . The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect" . Many Bantu languages borrow words from each other, and some are mutually intelligible . Some of

180-542: A noun class system in which nouns are classified according to the prefixes they bear and the prefixes they trigger in sentences. The table below shows Lingala's noun classes ordered according to the numbering system widely used in descriptions of Bantu languages. Individual classes pair up to form singular/plural pairs, sometimes called genders. There are seven genders. The singular classes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 take their plural forms from classes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, respectively. Additionally, many household items found in class 9 take

240-474: A vernacular has since grown with the size and importance of its main centers of use, Kinshasa and Brazzaville ; with its use as the lingua franca of the armed forces; and with the popularity of soukous music. At first the language the European pioneers and their African troops had forged out of Bobangi was called "the river language", "the trade language", and other volatile names. Beginning in 1884, it

300-421: A V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood. This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from English or other non-Bantu languages. An example from Chewa :

360-476: A bíkí CL1 :recovered mo lakisi mo laí yangó a bíkí CL1.teacher CL1.tall that CL1:recovered 'That tall teacher recovered' ba to CL2 .people ba kúmisa CL2 .praise Nkómbó name ya of Yɔ́ You ba to ba kúmisa Nkómbó ya Yɔ́ CL2.people CL2.praise name of You Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: UK : / ˌ b æ n ˈ t uː / , US : / ˈ b æ n t uː / Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are

420-498: A class 2 prefix ( ba ) in the plural: lútu → balútu 'spoon', mésa → bamésa 'table', sáni → basáni 'plate'. Words in class 11 usually take a class 10 plural. Most words from class 14 (abstract nouns) do not have a plural counterpart. Class 9 and 10 have a nasal prefix, which assimilates to the following consonant. Thus, the prefix shows up as 'n' on words that start with t or d , e.g. ntaba 'goat', but as 'm' on words that start with b or p (e.g. mbísi 'fish'). There

480-880: A consequence of this situation, when Papa Wemba was released, he could not welcome in Yoka Lokole anymore. A legal dispute between Wemba and Mavuela over the use of name "Yoka Lokole" was cut by Wemba in February 1977, as he decided to call his own group Viva La Musica , a battle cry he used in Yoka Lokole's shows. In the early months of 1977, some prominent members of Yoka Lokole, namely guitarist Syriana and drummer Otis Koyongonda, left to join Papa Wemba's Viva La Musica. New musicians were hired, namely singer Kanza Bayone (former Kiam member), guitarist Sec Bidens  [ fr ] and Gabonese drummer Baroza nicknamed "La Gabonnia". With this new lineup Yoka Lokole had

540-668: A designation referring indiscriminately to language, culture, society, and race"." The Bantu languages descend from a common Proto-Bantu language , which is believed to have been spoken in what is now Cameroon in Central Africa . An estimated 2,500–3,000 years ago (1000 BC to 500 BC), speakers of the Proto-Bantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying agriculture with them. This Bantu expansion came to dominate Sub-Saharan Africa east of Cameroon, an area where Bantu peoples now constitute nearly

600-414: A distant third place with 8.2 million speakers ( South Africa and Zimbabwe ), and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included), while Sotho-Tswana languages ( Sotho , Tswana and Pedi ) have more than 15 million speakers (across Botswana , Lesotho , South Africa, and Zambia ). Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, and Xhosa speakers. Ethnologue separates

660-414: A few more hits, and popularized a new dance style, Mékroumé . In the long run, Viva La Musica proved much more successful than Yoka Lokole; it actually became one of the most successful soukous bands ever. The "kinois" quarrel returned to the spotlights as the media criticized Somo and Mbuta for their contempt for the mowuta (i.e., the "non-kinois"). Yoka Lokole had one last success with Mandolina , but

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720-533: A few more singles that had some success, such as Testament (December 1977) and Tubela (July 1978). Nevertheless, in December 1978 Somo decided to leave Yoka Lokole. Guitarist Sec Bidens became the leader of the band, which quickly disappeared from the scenes. Lingala Lingala (or Ngala , Lingala: Lingála ) is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of

780-408: A full range of morphological noun prefixes with mandatory grammatical agreement system with subject–verb, or noun–modifier for each of class. It is largely used in formal functions and in some forms of writing. Most native speakers of Spoken Lingala and Kinshasa Lingala consider it incomprehensible. Northwestern (or Equateur ) Lingala is the product of the (incomplete) internalization by Congolese of

840-501: A major craze in Kinshasa 's dance club , together with Zaiko Langa Langa's Choquez and Isifi Melodia's Lofimbo . While Yoka Lokole was at its peak in popularity, yet another singer joined the impressive vocal lineup of the band, namely Djo Issa from Lita Bembo 's Stukas . In December 1976, the band was shaken by Papa Wemba's arrest for an alleged sentimental relation with the daughter of general Mobutu Sese Seko . While Wemba

900-698: A proper means of education and evangelization. Each of them set out on a program of massive corpus planning, aimed at actively "correcting" and "enlarging" Bangala from above [...]. One of them was the Catholic missionary Egide De Boeck of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM, commonly known as "the Missionaries of Scheut" or "Scheutists"), who arrived in Bangala Station – Nouvelle Anvers in 1901. Another one

960-584: A vowel shift from /ɔ/ to /o/ , leading to the absence of the phoneme /ɔ/ in favor of /o/ . The same occurs with /ɛ/ and /e/ , leading to just /e/ . So in Kinshasa, a native speaker will say mbóte as /ᵐbóte/ , compared to the more traditional pronunciation, /ᵐbɔ́tɛ/ . The prenasalized stops formed with a nasal followed by a voiceless plosive are allophonic to the voiceless plosives alone in some variations of Lingala. The prenasalized voiced occlusives, /ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, /ᵑɡ/, /ⁿz/ , do not vary. Lingala

1020-488: Is a tonal language . Tone is a distinguishing feature in minimal pairs , e.g.: mutu (human being) and mutú (head), or kokoma (to write) and kokóma (to arrive). There are two main tones, low and high, and two less common ones: starting high, dipping low, and ending high, all within the same vowel sound, e.g., mǐso (eyes); and starting low, rising high, and ending low, e.g.,  bôngó (therefore). Tense morphemes carry tones. Akin to all Bantu languages , Lingala has

1080-484: Is a little-studied language game (or ludic practice) musicians initially created shortly after 2000 that is increasingly used in social media and sites of cultural production. Lingala words show vowel harmony to some extent. The close-mid vowels /e/ and /o/ normally do not mix with the open-mid vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in words. For example, the words ndɔbɔ 'fishhook' and ndobo 'mouse trap' are found, but not *ndɔbo or *ndobɔ . The Lingala spoken in Kinshasa shows

1140-621: Is a standardized form used mostly in education and news broadcasts on state-owned radio or television and in Roman Catholic religious services, It is taught as a subject at some educational levels. It is historically associated with the work of the Catholic Church, the Belgian CICM missionaries in particular. It has a seven-vowel system ( /a/ /e/ /ɛ/ /i/ /o/ /ɔ/ /u/ ) with an obligatory tense-lax vowel harmony . It also has

1200-442: Is also a prefixless class 9a and 10a, exemplified by sánzá → sánzá 'moon(s) or month(s)'. Possible ambiguities are resolved by context. Noun class prefixes show up not only on the noun itself, but as markers throughout a sentence. In the sentences below, the class prefixes are underlined. (There is a special verbal form 'a' of the prefix for class 1 nouns.) mo lakisi CL1 .teacher mo laí CL1 .tall yangó that

1260-1174: Is hampered by insufficient data. Simplified phylogeny of northwestern branches of Bantu by Grollemund (2012): A40-50-60-70: Basaa languages , Bafia languages , Mbam languages , Beti language A10-20-30: Sawabantu languages , Manenguba languages A80-90: Makaa–Njem languages B20: Kele languages B10: Myene language B30: Tsogo languages C10-20-30: Ngondi–Ngiri languages , Mboshi languages , Bangi–Ntomba languages C40-D20-D32: Bati–Angba languages , Lega–Binja languages , Bira language B80-C60-70-80: Boma–Dzing languages , Soko languages , Tetela languages , Bushoong languages B40-H10-30-B50-60-70: Sira languages , Kongo languages , Yaka languages , Nzebi languages , Mbete languages , Teke languages L10-H40: Pende languages , Hungana language C50-D10: Soko languages , Lengola language D10-20-30-40-JD50: Mbole–Enya languages , Komo–Bira languages , Shi–Havu languages Other computational phylogenetic analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013), Grollemund et al. (2015), Rexova et al. 2006, Holden et al., 2016, and Whiteley et al. 2018. Glottolog ( 2021 ) does not consider

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1320-666: Is likely the innovative line cladistically . Northwest Bantu is not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group. Another attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann. However, it relies on lexicostatistics , which, because of its reliance on overall similarity rather than shared innovations , may predict spurious groups of conservative languages that are not closely related . Meanwhile, Ethnologue has added languages to

1380-548: Is mainly geographic. The term "narrow Bantu" was coined by the Benue–Congo Working Group to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie. In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other Southern Bantoid languages has been called into doubt, but the term is still widely used. There is no true genealogical classification of

1440-403: Is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class , and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with

1500-844: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . The most widely spoken Bantu language by number of speakers is Swahili , with 16 million native speakers and 80 million L2 speakers (2015). Most native speakers of Swahili live in Tanzania , where it is a national language, while as a second language, it is taught as a mandatory subject in many schools in East Africa, and is a lingua franca of the East African Community . Other major Bantu languages include Lingala with more than 20 million speakers ( Congo , DRC ), followed by Zulu with 13.56 million speakers ( South Africa ), Xhosa at

1560-526: The United States . Before 1880, Bobangi was an important trade language on the western sections of the Congo River , between Stanley Pool ( Kinshasa ) and the confluence of the Congo and Ubangi rivers(Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo). When the first Europeans and their West- and East-African troops started founding state posts for the Belgian king along this river section in

1620-419: The "impure", pidginlike features it had acquired when it emerged out of Bobangi in the early 1880s. Around and shortly after 1901, a number of both Catholic and Protestant missionaries working in the western and northern Congo Free State, independently of one another but in strikingly parallel terms, judged that Bangala as it had developed out of Bobangi was too "pidgin like", "too poor" a language to function as

1680-431: The (Narrow) Bantu languages. Until recently most attempted classifications only considered languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, but there seems to be a continuum with the related languages of South Bantoid. At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns: many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on

1740-560: The Congo , the northern half of the Republic of the Congo , in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville , and to a lesser degree as a trade language or because of emigration in neighbouring Angola or Central African Republic . Lingala has 20 million native speakers and about another 20 million second-language speakers, for an approximate total of 40 million speakers. A significant portion of both Congolese diasporas speaks Lingala in their countries of immigration like Belgium , France or

1800-610: The Congolese from more remote areas whom missionaries and colonials had been relocating to the station by force. The language of the river was therefore soon renamed "Bangala", a label the Europeans had since 1876 also been using as a convenient, but erroneous and non-original ethnic name for all Congolese of that region. Around 1901–2, CICM missionaries started a project to "purify" the Bangala language by cleansing it from

1860-590: The Guthrie classification which Guthrie overlooked, while removing the Mbam languages (much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages. Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but

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1920-514: The adjective prefix ki- (representing the diminutive form of the word) and the verb subject prefix a- . Then comes perfect tense -me- and an object marker -ki- agreeing with implicit kitabu 'book' (from Arabic kitab ). Pluralizing to 'children' gives Vitoto vidogo vimekisoma ( Vana vadoko varikuverenga in Shona), and pluralizing to 'books' ( vitabu ) gives vitoto vidogo vimevisoma . Bantu words are typically made up of open syllables of

1980-465: The author) as Northwest Bantu or Forest Bantu , and the remainder as Central Bantu or Savanna Bantu . The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems: where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa. Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less conservative due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu

2040-609: The beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona, and the Makua languages . With few exceptions, such as Kiswahili and Rutooro , Bantu languages are tonal and have two to four register tones. Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem. Well-known words and names that have reduplication include: Repetition emphasizes

2100-483: The concept of "language". In addition, delegates at the African Languages Association of Southern Africa conference in 1984 reported that, in some places, the term Kintu has a derogatory significance. This is because kintu refers to "things" and is used as a dehumanizing term for people who have lost their dignity. In addition, Kintu is a figure in some mythologies. In the 1990s,

2160-517: The departure of Bozi Boziana and Mbuta (who rejoined their former band Zaiko Langa Langa in August 1977) confirmed the band's decline. In late 1977, Somo was the last "star" in Yoka Lokole's lineup. He tried to renew the band hiring new musicians, such as Packi Lutula from Tabu National , Fabrice Fanfan , Shimita Lukombo El Diego , Lifelo Moto Moto , and the Fataki brothers , and eventually released

2220-537: The early 1880s, they noticed the widespread use and prestige of Bobangi. They attempted to learn it, but only cared to acquire an imperfect knowledge of it, a process that gave rise to a new, strongly restructured variety, called "the trade language", "the language of the river", or "Bobangi-pidgin", among other names. In 1884, Europeans introduced this restructured variety of Bobangi in the state post Bangala Station to communicate with local Congolese, some of whom had second-language knowledge of original Bobangi, and with

2280-498: The entire population. Some other sources estimate the Bantu Expansion started closer to 3000 BC. The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as the concept is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and

2340-501: The extent of borrowing varies widely with speakers of different regions (commonly among young people), and during different occasions. French Spanish Portuguese English The Lingala language can be divided into several regiolects and sociolects . The major regional varieties are northwestern Lingala, Kinshasa Lingala and Brazzaville Lingala. Literary Lingala ( lingala littéraire or lingala classique in French)

2400-620: The languages are spoken by a very small number of people, for example the Kabwa language was estimated in 2007 to be spoken by only 8500 people but was assessed to be a distinct language. The total number of Bantu speakers is estimated to be around 350 million in 2015 (roughly 30% of the population of Africa or 5% of the world population ). Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of Cameroon , and throughout Central , Southern , Eastern , and Southeast Africa . About one-sixth of Bantu speakers , and one-third of Bantu languages, are found in

2460-426: The largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi , which together have 20 million speakers. The similarity among dispersed Bantu languages had been observed as early as the 17th century. The term Bantu as a name for the group was not coined but "noticed" or "identified" (as Bâ-ntu ) by Wilhelm Bleek as the first European in 1857 or 1858, and popularized in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. He noticed

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2520-445: The larger ethnolinguistic phylum named by 19th-century European linguists. Bleek's identification was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups frequently self-identifying as "people" or "the true people" (as is the case, for example, with the term Khoikhoi , but this is a kare "praise address" and not an ethnic name). The term narrow Bantu , excluding those languages classified as Bantoid by Malcolm Guthrie (1948),

2580-558: The literary variety's. There is a five-vowel system and no vowel harmony. Spoken Lingala is largely used in informal functions, and the majority of Lingala songs use spoken Lingala. Modern spoken Lingala is influenced by French; French verbs, for example, may be "lingalized", adding Lingala inflection prefixes and suffixes: "acomprenaki te" or "acomprendraki te" ("he did not understand", using the French word comprendre ) instead of classic Lingala "asímbaki ntína te" (literally: "s/he grasped/held

2640-607: The new ensemble. In its early days, Yoka Lokole was overshadowed by two other greatly popular soukous bands, Zaiko Langa Langa and Isifi Melodia (the new name of Isifi Lokole after Papa Wemba's departure). This changed in 1976 when another singer, Mashakado Mbuta , joined the band. The first hit single released by Yoka Lokole was Matembelé Bangiì (June 1976) by Papa Wemba. Several other major hits followed, including Maloba Bakoko (by Somo), Mabita (Mashakado), and Lisuma Ya Zazu and Mama Walli (Papa Wemba). The band also created its own dance style, Mashakado-Au-Pas , that became

2700-493: The noun. Plurality is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. All Bantu languages are agglutinative . The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words. In Swahili , for example, Kitoto kidogo kimekisoma (for comparison, Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga in Shona language ) means 'The small child has read it [a book]'. kitoto 'child' governs

2760-414: The older geographic classification by Guthrie relevant for its ongoing classification based on more recent linguistic studies, and divides Bantu into four main branches: Bantu A-B10-B20-B30 , Central-Western Bantu , East Bantu and Mbam-Bube-Jarawan . Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu. The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages

2820-407: The plural prefix for human nouns starting with mu- (class 1) in most languages is ba- (class 2), thus giving bantu for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof , pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages. The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by Malcolm Guthrie in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages. It

2880-518: The prescriptive rules the CICM missionaries intended when designing Literary Lingala. The northwest is a zone where the CICM missionaries strongly supported the network of schools. Spoken Lingala (called lingala parlé in French) is the variety mostly used in Lingalaphones' day-to-day lives. It has a full morphological noun prefix system, but the agreement system in the noun phrase is laxer than

2940-496: The repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," means "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," means "A slow but steady pace wins the race." The latter repeats "pole" to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. As another example, "Haraka haraka" would mean "hurrying just for the sake of hurrying" (reckless hurry), as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry]. In contrast, there are some words in some of

3000-464: The result is not a complete portrayal of the family. Glottolog has incorporated many of these into their classification. The languages that share Dahl's law may also form a valid group, Northeast Bantu . The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu,

3060-488: The root/cause not"). These French influences are more prevalent in Kinshasa and indicate an erosion of the language as education in French becomes accessible to more of the population. There are pronunciation differences between "Catholic Lingala" and "Protestant Lingala", for example nzala/njala ("hunger"). Lingala ya Bayankee (sometimes called Yanké ) is a sociolect widely used in Kinshasa, e.g., by street youth, street vendors, criminal gangs and homeless children. Langila

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3120-410: The term Kintu was still occasionally used by South African linguists. But in contemporary decolonial South African linguistics, the term Ntu languages is used. Within the fierce debate among linguists about the word "Bantu", Seidensticker (2024) indicates that there has been a "profound conceptual trend in which a "purely technical [term] without any non-linguistic connotations was transformed into

3180-546: The term to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu , from the plural noun class prefix *ba- categorizing "people", and the root *ntʊ̀- "some (entity), any" (e.g. Xhosa umntu "person", abantu "people"; Zulu umuntu "person", abantu "people"). There is no native term for the people who speak Bantu languages because they are not an ethnic group . People speaking Bantu languages refer to their languages by ethnic endonyms , which did not have an indigenous concept prior to European contact for

3240-453: The type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina , however, has final consonants, while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi. The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly

3300-406: The word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is sukulu . That is, sk- has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic -u- ; -u has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is buledi for "bread". Similar effects are seen in loanwords for other non-African CV languages like Japanese . However, a clustering of sounds at

3360-664: Was accepted in western and northwestern Congo, and in other countries where the language was spoken, but not in northeastern Congo, where the variety of the language spoken locally is still called Bangala . Lingala is a Bantu-based creole of Central Africa with roots in the Bobangi language, which provided most of its lexicon and grammar. In its basic vocabulary, Lingala also borrows from other languages, such as Kikongo varieties, Ubangian languages , Swahili , French , Portuguese , English , and various African languages (note local and foreign interaction with Krumen). In practice,

3420-596: Was called "Bangala", due to its introduction in Bangala Station . After 1901, Catholic missionaries of CICM , also called the Congregation of Scheutists, proposed to rename the language "Lingala". It took some decades for this to be generally accepted both by colonials and the Congolese. The name Lingala first appears in writing in a 1901-2 publication by the CICM missionary Égide De Boeck . This name change

3480-651: Was in jail, the band kept touring in the Bas-Congo , something that Wemba complained about publicly. In the controversy that followed, which caused a considerable stir in Zaire's media, Mavuela and Mashakado flaunted their kinois (i.e., "of Kinshasa") heritage, implying that Papa Wemba (who was born in Kasai-Oriental ) was "out of place" in Yoka Lokole. The lyrics of the song Bana Kin by Mavuela, released in late December 1976, are clearly related to this quarrel. As

3540-557: Was introduced in the 1960s. The prefix ba- specifically refers to people. Endonymically, the term for cultural objects, including language, is formed with the ki- noun class (Nguni ísi- ), as in KiSwahili (Swahili language and culture), IsiZulu (Zulu language and culture) and KiGanda (Ganda religion and culture). In the 1980s, South African linguists suggested referring to these languages as KiNtu. The word kintu exists in some places, but it means "thing", with no relation to

3600-685: Was the Protestant missionary Walter H. Stapleton [...], and a third one the Catholic Léon Derikx of the Premonstratensian Fathers [...]. By 1915, De Boeck's endeavors had proven to be more influential than Stapleton's, whose language creative suggestions, as the Protestant missionaries' conference of 1911 admitted, had never been truly implemented [...]. Under the dominance of De Boeck's work, Derikx's discontinued his after less than 10 years. Lingala's importance as

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