Region Katanga province ISO 639-3 bnx | Native speakers 170,000 (1995) | |
Native to Democratic Republic of the Congo Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Bantu
Luban
Hemba (mostly);
Luba (Mutingua)
Bangubangu Dialects Bangubangu proper
Mikebwe
Kasenga
Nonda
Hombo | ||
Bangubangu is a Bantu dialect cluster spoken by the Bangubangu people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The dialects are about 80% similar, apart from Hombo which is only 70% similar to the main dialect. It is possible that they are distinct languages. Christine Ahmed (1995) classifies the small "Bangubangu of Mutingua" apart from the rest, with the Luba rather than Hemba languages; this is presumably a Hombo dialect.
One of the earliest scholars to study Bangubangu was A. E. Meeussen, who wrote a brief description of the grammar of the language as a result of a visit to the area in 1951.
References
Bangubangu language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA