Songe, also known as Songye, Kisonge, Lusonge, Yembe, and Northeast Luba, is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Songe | |
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Native to | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Region | Kasai-Oriental province |
Native speakers | (1 million cited 1991)[1] |
Language family | Niger–Congo?
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | sop |
Glottolog | song1303 |
Guthrie code | L.23 [2] |
Ethnologue notes that Songe is "related" to Mbagani, which they do not include in their database. Maho (2009) labels as "Mbagani (Binji)" one of the two geographic areas Ethnologue assigns to Songe, but says that it is closer to Lwalu; he says that it is a different language, Binji, that is close to Songe.
A five vowel system with vowel length is present:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː | |
Mid | e eː | o oː | |
Open | a aː |
Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k |
vl. prenasal | ᵐp | ⁿt | ⁿtʃ | ᵑk | |
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||
vd. prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | |
vl. prenasal | ᶬf | ⁿs | ⁿʃ | ||
voiced | v | z | ʒ | ||
vd. prenasal | ᶬv | ⁿz | ⁿʒ | ||
Approximant | l | j | w |
Languages of the Pygmies | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nilo-Saharan |
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Niger-Congo |
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Unclassified |
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Official language | |||||||||||||||||||||
National languages | |||||||||||||||||||||
Indigenous languages (by province) |
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Sign languages |
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Note: The Guthrie classification is geographic and its groupings do not imply a relationship between the languages within them. |