Learn Lingala

Apprendre le lingala

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Le lingala est parlé par des dizaines de millions de personnes en Afrique centrale et a le statut de langue nationale en République démocratique du Congo et dans la Répu­blique du Congo. C’est une langue expressive et dynamique, à la fois complexe et rela­tivement facile à apprendre, grâce à la logique interne de sa structure. Il est devenu la lingua franca dans une grande partie de l’Afrique, bien au-delà des frontières des deux Congo, grâce au grand succès de la musique congolaise entre autres.

Le lingala fait partie de la famille bantoue, dont les autres membres les plus connues sont le zoulou, le swahili, le shona, le xhosa et le kikongo. Contrairement à ces langues, le lingala a perdu une grande partie des accords grammaticaux qui caracté­rise la plupart des autres membres de la famille. N’empêche que le lingala est com­plexe, d’où la nécessité d’un dictionnaire grammatical.

À cause de la structure particulière des langues bantoues, totalement étrangère à la logique des langues européennes, un dictionnaire traditionnel est peu utile à celui qui fait ses premiers pas dans l’apprentissage de la langue. En effet, la plupart des mots d’une langue bantoue ne se trouvent pas dans un dictionnaire conçu selon le modèle indo-européen. Par contre, ce nouveau dictionnaire aide débutants et locuteurs avancés à pénétrer sans peine les mystères du système bantou.

Segundo, le lingala est en constante évolution. Ce dictionnaire reflète les tendances actuelles, le lingala tel qu’il est parlé à Kinshasa et à Brazzaville – sans oublier l’énorme diaspora congolaise en Europe et en Amérique du nord – tout en tenant compte du lingala traditionnel, parfois connu sous le nom de makanza.

Et enfin, ce dictionnaire est le fruit de vingt ans de travail passé en RDC, au Congo et en Europe dans une proche collaboration avec des Congolais, experts dans la traduction et la lexicographie. Nous tenons à les remercier de nous avoir donné l’occasion de puiser dans leur vaste connaissance.

One of the most widely spoken and most beautiful Bantu languages is Lingala.

Lingala is spoken by tens of millions of people in Central Africa and has the status of a national language in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. It is an expressive and dynamic language, both complex and relatively easy to learn, thanks to the internal logic of its structure. It has become the lingua franca in a large part of Africa, far beyond the borders of the two Congos, thanks in part to the great success of Congolese music.

Lingala is constantly evolving. This dictionary reflects current trends, modern Lingala as it is spoken in Kinshasa and Brazzaville – not to mention the huge Congolese diaspora in Europe and North America. We do though take full account of the more conservative and traditional variety of Lingala, sometimes known as makanza.

This book is the result of twenty years of work in close collaboration with Congolese experts in translation and lexicography spent in the DRC, the Republic of Congo and with the Congolese diaspora in Europe. We would like to thank them for giving us the opportunity to tap into their vast knowledge. We would like to share some of it with you.

What you need to know about Lingala

  • No. Lingala is part of the Bantu language group, the best-known members of which are perhaps Zulu, Swahili, Shona, Xhosa and Kikongo.

    Lingala has no family connection with any European language.

  • Modern urban Lingala has lost many of the grammatical structures that characterise most other members of the Bantu group.

    Nevertheless, Lingala is complex and extremely logical, hence the need for a grammatical dictionary.

  • Because of the particular structure of Lingala, which is totally alien to the logic of European languages, a traditional dictionary is of little use to those who are taking their first steps in learning.

    Most of the words of any Bantu language are not found in dictionaries designed according to the Indo-European model.

    This new dictionary has therefore been conceived according to a system which helps beginners and advanced speakers to discover the logic of the Bantu language system.

    We use a ground-breaking new system to help learners with some of the difficulties that learners of Bantu languages often face.

  • A characteristic of all Bantu languages is that they are built up from verb roots.

    In this dictionary, all verb roots are underlined to enable the reader to make connections easily between seemingly unrelated words.

    For example, whereas the English words ‘teacher’, ‘school’ and ‘lesson’ have no obvious common etymology, by underlining the root in the equivalent word in Lingala moteyi, eteyelo and liteya, we see instantly that they are all derived from the verb root -tey-, meaning ‘to teach’.

  • Yes, we do.

    Grammar is simply a term describing the way that words are put together.

    Lingala uses a complex, but logical system of affixes to modify the meaning of the verb root, making dictionaries arranged according to the traditional pattern of very limited use for those not familiar with the grammatical structure.

    Many words in any given Lingala text will not feature as headwords. We have therefore used an original method, incorporating these affixes into the body of the dictionary, along with a brief grammatical explanation of their function, to enable the user to find the meaning of the word being researched.

  • Yes, it will.

    Many Lingala words relating to cultural practices and realities have no equivalent in European languages. Small articles within the body of the book describe and explain these features.

    And, if you want to dig deeper into this topic, we recommend Congo: A Story in 26 Words.

Do you have a question about learning Lingala?

Our passion is language learning, so we’d be delighted to answer any questions you many have