Lingala
| Lingala | |
|---|---|
| Ngala | |
| Lingála | |
| Native to | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo |
| Region | Congo River |
| Speakers | L1: 21 million (2021) L2: 20 million (2021) |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects | |
| African Reference Alphabet (Latin), Mandombe script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ln |
| ISO 639-2 | lin |
| ISO 639-3 | lin |
| Glottolog | ling1269 |
C30B | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUI-f |
Geographic distribution of Lingala speakers, showing regions of native speakers (dark green) and regions where Lingala is spoken by a minority. (light green) | |
Lingala (or Ngala, Lingala: Lingála) is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of 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 the United States.