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Comparative perspectives in the study of
languages from the North-East of Congo Didier
Demolin Phonology Laboratory, Université libre
de Bruxelles Universidade de São
Paulo Lyon, May 2008
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• Linguistic diversity and language contact
• The North East of Congo shows an important
  linguistic diversity. There are 4 different
  linguistic families present in the area Bantu,
  Central Sudanic , Nilotic and Ubanguian.
• This situation is the consequence of ancient
  language contacts that shaped the linguistic
  landscape of this part of Congo.
• Culuturally there are agriculturalists (forest
  and savanah), hunther gatherers and pastoralists
  settling the region.
• This area also covers the limit between the
  rainforest and the savannah that is very rich
  ecosystem having a high population density.

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Language families Bantu C Boa, Liko D
Bodo, Bira, Nyali, Hema, Kumu, Ndaka, Mbo,
Bali Central Sudanic Moru-Mangbetu Mangbetu-Asu
a Mangbetu, Medje, Makere, Malele, Mapopoi,
Nabulu, Lombi, Asua Mangbutu-Efe Mangbutu,
Ndo, Mamvu, Lese, Mvuba, Efe
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Oubanguian Zande, Barambo Ma, Mba, Mayogo,
Bangba Mondo, Dongo Nilotic Kakwa, Alur
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Mbuti Pygmies Central sudanic Asua
(Mangbetu-Asua) Efe (Mangbutu-Efe) Bantu Sua Kang
o, Tchwa Sua
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2. Bantu from the North East of Congo Bantu C
Boa and Liko are languages with class prefixes
and suffixes This might be the consequence of
contact with Ubanguian languages Bantu D Bodo,
Nyali, Ndaka, Mbo, Bali The vowels systems are
similar to the ATR vowel systems of the
neighboring Central Sudanic Languages. There are
also several consonants that are likely borrowed
from Central languages (implosives, flaps,
trills, labio-velars). Bira (D 32) has only two
class prefixes.
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Language contact with Bantu languages There are
several interesting cases of changes due to
language contact in this region. For example the
Mangbele who are assimilated to the Mangbetu were
originally speaking a language very close to Boa.
They are now present at various places in the
North East of Congo (sometimes quite far one from
the other). Bali and Liko share a lot of lexical
items with the languages belonging to the
Mangbetu language group.
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3. Central Sudanic languages Mangbetu-Asua Compara
tive data show that Asua which is the language
spoken a group of Pygmies is the most
distinctive. Otherwise most languages are quite
close but for Lombi that is more
distant. Mangbutu-Efe Comparative data show that
Magbutu and Ndo are more distinct than Mamvu,
Lese, Efe and Mvuba that are more similar. Lese
and Efe that is the language by a group of
Pygmies are the more similar.
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4. Languages spoken by the pygmies Mbuti is not
a language. Indeed it is a generic name applied
to the Pygmies of the Ituri and sometimes to all
Pygmies of the North East of Congo. This term
covers 2 groups of Pygmies speaking Central
Sudanic languages (Asua and Efe) and three groups
of Pygmies speaking Bantu languages (Sua -2
groups-, Kango and Tchwa). These correspond to
the three groups of Bantu languages, Bira-Kumu
(Sua and Kango), Bodo-Nyali (Tchwa) and Liko-Bali
(Sua). Comparative data are based on specialized
lexicons (mammals, birds and botanical terms).
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Comparative data between the different languages
spoken by the Pygmies show that there is common
vocabulary between Asua and Efe between Asua and
Kango but much between Efe and Kango, Tchwa or
Sua. The analysis of specialized lexicons
(zoological, botanical and ornitological) suggest
that for this part of the lexicon- Pygmy
languages can be divided in two groups that
reflect the distinction between Central Sudanic
and Bantu languages. However Asua seems to be
closer to Bantu languages than Efe.
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Looking at the zoological lexicon (that has
comparable lists for all languages but sometimes
for Asua) it is possible to show that there are
some common items between Central Sudanic and
Bantu languages. Most of the time Sua, Kango and
Tchwa group together while Efe is different. When
data for Asua are available they show more
similarities with Bantu languages when compared
to Efe.
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5. Comparative and historical perspectives The
present state of the comparative data from the
North East of Congo and particularly from the
Ituri region allows making some observations. The
history of the relation between Asua and the
other languages of the Mangbetu linguistic group
is important to understand the historical depth
of their relation and the contact between Central
Sudanic languages with some neighboring
linguistic groups (Bantu and Ubanguian). The
relation between Asua, Efe and the different
Pygmies groups speaking a Bantu language is not
straightforward.
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The three different groups of Pygmies (and
famers) speaking a Bantu language seem to reflect
(three?) different periods of the history of
these languages. The sound systems, the lexicon
and even the morphology of the Central Sudanic
and Bantu languages of the region seem to reflect
different periods of historical contacts. More
comparative data is badly needed to refine or
reject these observations. Genetic data will be
essential to clarify some of these problems in
terms of human geography and history.