Mongo language

Mongo, also called Nkundo or Mongo-Nkundu (Lomongo, Lonkundu), is a Bantu language spoken by several of the Mongo peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mongo speakers reside in the north-west of the country over a large area inside the curve of the Congo River. Mongo is a tonal language.

There are several dialects. Maho (2009) lists one of these, Bafoto (Batswa de l'Equateur), C.611, as a separate language. The others are:^[2]

• Kutu (Bakutu), including Longombe
• Bokote, including Ngata
• Booli
• Bosaka
• Konda (Ekonda), including Bosanga-Ekonda
• Ekota
• Emoma
• Ikongo, including Lokalo-Lomela
• Iyembe
• Lionje, Nsongo, Ntomba
• Yamongo
• Mbole, including Nkengo, Yenge, Yongo, Bosanga-Mbole, Mangilongo, Lwankamba
• Nkole
• South Mongo, including Bolongo, Belo, Panga, Acitu
• Yailima
• Ngombe-Lomela, Longombe, Ngome à Múná

• /d͡z/ can be heard as alveolar or dental [d̪͡z̪] and /t͡s/ can be alveolar or postalveolar [t͡ʃ], when before front vowels.^[3]

In 1921, Edward Algernon Ruskin, a Christian missionary at Bongandanga from 1891 until 1935 in what was then the Belgian Congo,^[4] published Mongo Proverbs and Fables, with the Mongo text and an English translation.^[5] As Ruskin explains in the foreword to the book, his goal was to train missionaries in the Mongo language. The book contains 405 Mongo proverbs. Here are some examples:

• "Ntambaka jit'a nkusa." ("You do not go hunting porcupines and collecting bark for making string at the same time.") (#88)
• "Nkema ntawaka ndesanya." ("A monkey is not killed by merely watching it.") (#172)
• "Ise aomaki njoku, beke bempate nko?" ("Your father killed an elephant, then where are your tusks?") (#219)
• "Tusake wese; wunyu botaka 'akata." ("Do not throw away a bone; a piece of lean meat has not yet fallen into your hands.") (#389)

There are also 21 Mongo fables in the book, including a story about Ulu, the trickster Tortoise.^[6]

In an earlier booklet, Proverbs, Fables, Similes and Sayings of the Bamongo, published in 1897, Ruskin provides a word by word analysis of some Mongo proverbs, often accompanied by a brief fable.^[7]

In 1909, Frederick Starr published a collection of 150 Nkundo (Mongo) proverbs with English translations, "Proverbs of Upper Congo,"^[8] which he selected from a 1904 publication, Bekolo bi' ampaka ba Nkundo. Bikolongo la nsako. Beki Bakola otakanyaka (Stories of the Elders of Nkundo: Adages and Proverbs Gathered by Bakola) by Bakola, also known as Ellsworth Farris, and Royal J. Dye, missionaries based near Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka).^[9] Here are some of those proverbs:

• "Bobimbo nko lobya, nk'ome w'etuka." "The bobimbo bears no great flowers, but what large fruit it has (i.e. show is not always a sign of substance)." (#24)
• "Bocik'a nsoso: ng'omanga ntokumba, ifoyala lobi enkolonkoko." "Spare the chicken: if the wild-cat does not take it, it will become large (i.e. do not despise small things)." (#26)
• "Boseka nkoi, lokola nkingo." "The friendship of the leopard, a claw in your neck (i.e. like nursing a serpent)." (#64)
• "Bosai'omonkolo bondotaji mpota, beuma beyokoka l'alongo." "One finger gashed, all the fingers are covered with blood (i.e. if one suffers, all are involved)." (#66)

Starr is also the author of A Bibliography of Congo Languages.^[10] For more recent bibliography, see A. J. de Rop's La littérature orale mongo, published in 1974.^[11] For a comprehensive study of Mongo proverbs, see Hulstaert's Proverbes mongo, published in 1958, which contains over 2500 Mongo proverbs with accompanying French translations.^[12]

• Mongo, Nkundo on PanAfril10n

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