Difference between revisions of "User:Apowell1/Language selection"
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== Lingala == | == Lingala == | ||
| − | === | + | === Basic Information === |
| − | + | Lingala is a language used frequently in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (Congo). With slightly more than two million native speakers, it is found with greatest frequency in the northwestern portions of the DRC and in the northern half of the Congo.<ref name="ucla lingala" /> | |
| + | {| class="wikitable" | ||
| + | |+ Native Lingala Speakers by Country <ref name="ethnologue lingala" /> | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | ! Country / Geographic Area | ||
| + | ! Number of Speakers | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | | Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||
| + | | 2,040,000 | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | | Republic of the Congo | ||
| + | | 90,600 | ||
| + | |} | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Historically, the Congo was a colony of France for the first half of the twentieth century.<ref name="french congo" /> Likewise, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was under Belgian rule during a similar time period.<ref name="belgium congo" /> As a result, in both countries, French has maintained prevalence in the present day. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, French remains the official language, with Lingala comprising one of four indigenous languages considered "national languages," Kituba, Swahili, and Tshiluba being the other three.<ref name="drc languages /> In the Republic of the Congo, French is the official language, with Linguala and Kituba considered the two national languages.<ref name="congo languages" /> It would be plausible that speakers of Lingala would know French, or one of the other national languages. Still, only 68.5 % of people in the DRC speak French<ref name="drc languages" />, so it is far from certain that a speaker of Lingala would know French. As the official language of both countries, it is most likely that locally published material discussing Lingala is in French. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Based on this information, it seems quite clear that Lingala is far from threatened. With more than 2,000,000 native speakers and its designation as a national language in both the DRC and the Congo, it can quite easily be transmitted to future generations. | ||
| + | |||
| + | While Lingala is fairly widely known in many parts of the DRC and the Congo, it primarily a spoken, rather than a written language. This is, in part, due to the low literacy rates (estimated to be less than 30%) in areas of Africa where Lingala is spoken. As a result, there can be quite a bit of variance in its orthography.<ref name="lingala wikipedia" /> At a most basic level, the Latin alphabet is used. Lingala has seven vowels, with 'e' and 'o' being used to represent a high and low tone version.<ref name="ucla linguala" /> Some writing systems use the characters 'ɛ' and 'ɔ' to make this disticntion, but many, including major websites, do not. Additionally, the use of accents can be somewhat inconsistent. Generally, though, Lingala has 35 letters and digraphs, with accents being used on vowels to denote tone.<ref name="lingala wikipedia" /> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lingala uses ISO code lin.<ref name="lingala wikipedia" /> | ||
=== Morphological Typology === | === Morphological Typology === | ||
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== Samoan == | == Samoan == | ||
| − | === | + | === Basic Information === |
=== Morphological Typology === | === Morphological Typology === | ||
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== Chamorro == | == Chamorro == | ||
| − | === | + | === Basic Information === |
=== Morphological Typology === | === Morphological Typology === | ||
| Line 26: | Line 47: | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
| − | <references /> | + | <references> |
| + | <ref name="ucla lingala">http://lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?menu=004&LangID=14</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name="ethnologue lingala">https://www.ethnologue.com/language/lin</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name ="french congo">https://www.britannica.com/place/French-Congo</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name="belgium congo">http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/belgian-congo.html</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name="drc languages>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name="congo languages">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Republic_of_the_Congo</ref> | ||
| + | <ref name="lingala wikipedia">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingala</ref> | ||
| + | </references> | ||
Revision as of 23:18, 17 January 2017
This page details, in order of preference, three languages which I am interested in working on this semester. Note that this is a work-in-progress and subject to change over next 48 hours.
Contents
Lingala
Basic Information
Lingala is a language used frequently in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (Congo). With slightly more than two million native speakers, it is found with greatest frequency in the northwestern portions of the DRC and in the northern half of the Congo.[1]
| Country / Geographic Area | Number of Speakers |
|---|---|
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 2,040,000 |
| Republic of the Congo | 90,600 |
Historically, the Congo was a colony of France for the first half of the twentieth century.[3] Likewise, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was under Belgian rule during a similar time period.[4] As a result, in both countries, French has maintained prevalence in the present day. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, French remains the official language, with Lingala comprising one of four indigenous languages considered "national languages," Kituba, Swahili, and Tshiluba being the other three.[5] In the Republic of the Congo, French is the official language, with Linguala and Kituba considered the two national languages.[6] It would be plausible that speakers of Lingala would know French, or one of the other national languages. Still, only 68.5 % of people in the DRC speak French[5], so it is far from certain that a speaker of Lingala would know French. As the official language of both countries, it is most likely that locally published material discussing Lingala is in French.
Based on this information, it seems quite clear that Lingala is far from threatened. With more than 2,000,000 native speakers and its designation as a national language in both the DRC and the Congo, it can quite easily be transmitted to future generations.
While Lingala is fairly widely known in many parts of the DRC and the Congo, it primarily a spoken, rather than a written language. This is, in part, due to the low literacy rates (estimated to be less than 30%) in areas of Africa where Lingala is spoken. As a result, there can be quite a bit of variance in its orthography.[7] At a most basic level, the Latin alphabet is used. Lingala has seven vowels, with 'e' and 'o' being used to represent a high and low tone version.[8] Some writing systems use the characters 'ɛ' and 'ɔ' to make this disticntion, but many, including major websites, do not. Additionally, the use of accents can be somewhat inconsistent. Generally, though, Lingala has 35 letters and digraphs, with accents being used on vowels to denote tone.[7]
Lingala uses ISO code lin.[7]
Morphological Typology
Text Availability
Samoan
Basic Information
Morphological Typology
Text Availability
Chamorro
Basic Information
Morphological Typology
Text Availability
References
- ↑ http://lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?menu=004&LangID=14
- ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/lin
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/place/French-Congo
- ↑ http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/belgian-congo.html
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Republic_of_the_Congo
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingala
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs nameducla_linguala
