Luba-Kasai language

Luba-Kasai, also known as Western Luba, Bena-Lulua, Ciluba/Tshiluba,[5] Luba-Lulua[6] or Luva, is a Bantu language (Zone L) of Central Africa and a national language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alongside Lingala, Swahili, and Kikongo.

Not to be confused with Luba-Katanga, a related yet smaller Luba language.
"Tshiluba" redirects here. For the Zambian president, see Frederick Chiluba.
Luba-Kasai
Ciluba[1] (Tshiluba)
Native toDemocratic Republic of the Congo
RegionKasai
EthnicityBaluba-Kasai (Bena-kasai)
Native speakers
(6.3 million Cilubaphones cited 1991)[2]
Dialects
  • Ciluba-Lubilanji /Cena-Lubilanji (in Mbuji-Mayi, Tshilenge district, and western Gandajika territory)
  • Cena-Lulua (in Kananga, central-northern Lulua district, and eastern Luebo territory)
  • Cikwa-Nyambi (in Northern Kamonia territory & Tshikapa)
  • Cikwa-Luntu (in Dimbelenge territory)
Official status
Official language in
 Democratic Republic of Congo (national language)
Language codes
ISO 639-2lua
ISO 639-3lua
Glottologluba1249[3]
L.31[4]
Pidgin Chiluba
Native toDR Congo
Native speakers
None
Luba-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone
L.30A[4]

An eastern dialect is spoken by the Luba people of the East Kasai Region and a western dialect by the Lulua people of the West Kasai Region. The total number of speakers was estimated at 6.3 million in 1991.

Within the Zone L Bantu languages, Luba-Kasai is one of a group of languages which form the "Luba" group, together with Kaonde (L40), Kete (L20), Kanyok, Luba-Katanga (KiLuba), Sanga, Zela and Bangubangu. The L20, L30 and L60 languages are also grouped as the Luban languages within Zone L Bantu.

Geographic distribution and dialects

Tshiluba is chiefly spoken in a large area in the Kasaï Occidental and Kasaï Oriental provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the differences in Tshiluba within the area are minor, consisting mostly of differences in tones and vocabulary, and speakers easily understand one another. Both dialects have subdialects.

Additionally, there is also a pidginised variety of Tshiluba,[4] especially in cities, where the everyday spoken Tshiluba is enriched with French words and even words from other languages, such as Lingala or Swahili. Nevertheless, it is not a typical form of a pidgin since it is not common to everyone but changes its morphology and the quantity and degree to which words from other languages are used. Its form changes depending on who speaks it and varies from city to city and social class to social class. However, people generally speak the regular Tshiluba language in their daily lives, rather than pidgin.

The failure of the language to be taught at school has resulted in the replacement of native words by French words for the most part. For instance, people speaking generally count in French, rather than Tshiluba. The situation of French and Tshiluba being used simultaneously made linguists mistakenly think that the language had been pidginised.

Vocabulary
Western dialectsEastern dialectsEnglish
memememame
neniwith
nzolo/nsolonzoluchicken
bionsobionsueverything
luepumukela (e)salt
kapiamudilufire
bidianshimafufu
malabamakelelayesterday/ tomorrow
lupepeluhepawind
Mankaji (shi)/tatu mukajitatu mukajiaunty
bimpebimpawell/good

Alphabet

Luba-Kasai uses the Latin alphabet, with the digraphs ng, ny and sh but without the letters q, r and x:[7]

Phonology

Tshiluba has 5 vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/.

The chart shows the consonants of Tshiluba.

Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k
voiced b d
Affricate tʃ
Fricative voiceless (ɸ) f s ʃ h
voiced v z ʒ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Approximant l j w
  • 12 prenasalized sounds are noted as /ᵐp ᵐb/, /ᶬf ᶬv/, /ⁿt ⁿd/, /ⁿs ⁿz/, /ⁿʃ ⁿʒ/, /ⁿtʃ/, /ᵑk/.
  • /p/ may also have the sound [ɸ].
  • If a /d/ is preceding an /i/, it may also be pronounced as an affricate sound [dʒ].

Sample text

According to The Rosetta Project,[8] Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translates to:

Bantu bonsu badi baledibwa badikadile ne badi ne makokeshi amwe. Badi ne lungenyi lwa bumuntu ne kondo ka moyo, badi ne bwa kwenzelangana malu mu buwetu.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."[7]
gollark: What of the train generation neural network you are inevitably to make?
gollark: I dislike this.
gollark: The security guarantees entirely come from it being a piece of hardware which the user isn't meant to be able to do much to.
gollark: Personally, I dislike the entire idea of "trusted" computing, so in my IMO it is.
gollark: You could use one of those "smart plug" things or possibly a relay somehow.

References
  1. "Ciluba" is Standard Orthography, pronounced like "Chiluba" and "Tshiluba".
  2. Luba-Kasai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Luba-Lulua". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  5. The prefix tshi/ci means "language"
  6. "Luba-Lulua" is too restrictive a name, as the Lulua people speak only the Western dialect of Luba-Kasai.
  7. "Tshiluba language and alphabet". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
  8. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Rosetta Project: A Long Now Foundation Library of Human Language (no author). (2010). https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_lua_undec-1
  • Samuel Phillips Verner (1899). Mukanda wa Chiluba. Spottiswoode. Retrieved 26 August 2012.

Bibliography
  • Stappers, Leo. Tonologische bijdrage tot de studie van het werkwoord in het tshiluba. 1949. Mémoires (Institut royal colonial belge. Section des sciences morales et politiques). Collection in-8o ; t. 18, fasc. 4.
  • de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice. Cilubà Phonetics: Proposals for a 'Corpus-Based Phonetics from Below' Approach. 1999. Research Centre of African Languages and Literatures, University of Ghent.
  • DeClercq, P. Grammaire de la langue des bena-lulua. 1897. Polleunis et Ceuterick.
  • Muyunga, Yacioko Kasengulu. 1979. Lingala and Ciluba speech audiometry. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaires du Zaïre pour l'Université Nationale du Zaïre (UNAZA).
  • Kabuta, Ngo. Loanwords in Cilubà. 2012. University of Ghent, Belgium.
  • Willems, Em. Het Tshiluba van Kasayi voor beginnelingen. 1943. Sint Norbertus.
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