Bongo language

Bongo (Bungu), also known as Dor, is a Central Sudanic language spoken by the Bongo people in sparsely populated areas of Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan.

Bongo
Native to	South Sudan
Ethnicity	Bongo people
Native speakers	10,100 (2000)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Central Sudanic Bongo–Bagirmi Bongo–Baka Bongo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bot
Glottolog	bong1285[2]

A 2013 survey reported that ethnic Bongo reside in Bussere Boma, Bagari Payam, Wau County, South Sudan.[3]

Tone

Bongo is tonal language that has the high (á), mid (ā), low (à) and falling (â) tones.

All falling tones occur on either long vowels or on vowel clusters or glides. When the tonal fall is not due to a preceding high tone, it can be indicated by a high tine followed by a low tone

Ton	Example	Translation
high	bʊ́	hungry
low	tɪ̀ɪ̀	Pounded sesame
falling	tââ /táà/	when

Numerals

Bongo has a quinary-vigesimal numeral system.[4]

Number	Bongo word
1	kɔ̀tʊ́
2	ŋɡɔ̀r
3	mʊ̀tːà
4	ʔɛ́w
5	múì
6	dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
7	dɔ́ŋɡɔr
8	dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
9	dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
10	kɪ̀ː
11	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) kɔ̀tʊ́
12	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) ŋɡɔ̀r
13	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) mʊ̀tːà
14	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) ʔɛ́w
15	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) múì
16	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
17	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ́ŋɡɔr
18	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
19	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
20	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́
21	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɔ̀tʊ́
22	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ŋɡɔ̀r
23	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː mʊ̀tːà
24	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ʔɛ́w
25	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː múì
26	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
27	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ́ŋɡɔr
28	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
29	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
30	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
40	mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r
50	mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
60	mbàba mʊ̀tːà
70	mbàba mʊ̀tːà dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
80	mbàba ʔɛ́w
90	mbàba ʔɛ́w dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
100	mbàla múì
200	mbàba múì dɔ̀ː múì
1000	mbuda kɔ̀tʊ́
2000	mbuda ŋɡɔ̀r

Scholarship

The first ethnologists to work with the Bongo language were John Petherick, who published Bongo word lists in his 1861 work, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa; Theodor von Heuglin, who also published Bongo word lists in Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nil, &c. 1862-1864 in 1869; and Georg August Schweinfurth, who contributed sentences and vocabularies in his Linguistische Ergebnisse, Einer Reise Nach Centralafrika in 1873.[5] E. E. Evans-Pritchard published additional Bongo word lists in 1937.[6]

More recent scholarship has been done by Eileen Kilpatrick, who published a phonology of Bongo in 1985.[7]

References

1. Bongo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bongo". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. "Village Assessment Survey". International Organization for Migration South Sudan. 2013.
4. Bongo at Numeral Systems of the World's Languages Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
5. The Bongo. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Sudan Notes and Records (1929): 1-62.
6. The non-Dinka peoples of the Amadi and Rumbek Districts. Evans-Pritchard, E. E.. Sudan Notes and Records (1937): 156-158
7. Bongo Phonology. Eileen Kilpatrick. Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages 4 (1985): 1-62.

Further reading

• A Small Comparative Vocabulary of Bongo Baka Yulu Kara Sodality of St Peter Claver, Rome, 1963.
• A Reconstructed History of the Chari Languages - Bongo - Bagirmi - Sara. Segmental Phonology, with Evidence from Arabic Loanwords. Linda Thayer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1974. Typewritten thesis 309 pages. Copy held by J.A. Biddulph (Africanist publisher, Joseph Biddulph, Pontypridd, Wales).

External links

• Bongo at Gurtong
• The Jesus Film in Bongo
• Bongo at WALS Online