Bangala is a Bantu language spoken in the northeast part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in southern Sudan, and the extreme western part of Uganda. It's used as a lingua franca by people with different tribal languages and is therefore rarely a first language. The estimated number of speakers varies between 2 and 3.5 million[1]. It is spoken to the west and southwest of the area where Lingala is spoken.
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History
As Lingala spread west and south, its vocabulary was replaced more and more by tribal and regional languages, and it became more of an interlanguage (a language that is a mix of two or more languages) and was classified as a separate language - Bangala. The vocabulary of Bangala varies depending on the first language of the speakers. Around the 1980s, with the popularity and increased availability of Lingala in modern music, young people in large villages and towns began adopting Lingala so much that their Bangala is becoming more of a dialect than a separate language.[2].
Characteristics
References
External links
- Ethnologue report for Bangala
- List of common words in Bangala
- List of common words in Lingala
- Sample of Bangala text
