Ngombe language

{{Short description|Language spoken in DR Congo}}

{{distinguish|Ngombe language (Central African Republic)}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Ngombe

|nativename=Lingombe

|states=DR Congo

|speakers= 150,000

|date=1971

|ref=e18

|familycolor=Niger-Congo

|fam2=Atlantic–Congo

|fam3=Volta-Congo

|fam4=Benue–Congo

|fam5=Bantoid

|fam6=Southern Bantoid

|fam7=Bantu (Zone C.40)

|fam8=Buja–Ngombe

|iso3=ngc

|glotto=ngom1268

|glottorefname=Ngombe (Democratic Republic of Congo)

|guthrie=C.41

}}

File:Ngombe woman - First birth tradition (Libota Liboso).jpgNgombe, or Lingombe, is a Bantu language spoken by about 150,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In general, native speakers live on either side of the Congo River, and its many tributaries; more specifically, Équateur Province, Mongala District and in areas neighboring it (Sud Ubangi and Équateur districts). Ngombe is written in Latin script.{{ cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ngc |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=M. Paul |year=2009 |title=Ngombe |work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition (online) |location=Dallas, Tex. |publisher=SIL International |access-date=September 3, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219013345/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ngc |archive-date=Dec 19, 2011}}

The deities of the Ngombe include the supreme creator Akongo and the ancestor goddess Mbokomu.{{citation|pages=145–146

|last1=Johnson|first1=Allen W.|last2=Price-Williams|first2=Douglass Richard|title=Oedipus Ubiquitous: The Family Complex in World Folk Literature

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLF7E1u0SnwC&pg=PA145|access-date=2017-11-06|year=1996|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-2577-4}}

Ngombe includes several dialects in addition to Ngombe proper (Ŋgɔmbɛ). These are Wiindza-Baali, Doko (Dɔkɔ), and Binja (also rendered Binza, Libindja, or Libinja). The latter is not the same as the Binja/Binza language. Binja dialect is primarily spoken in Orientale Province and Aketi Territory, and shares about three-quarters of its linguistic characteristics with standard Ngombe. Maho (2009) lists Doko as a distinct language in a separate group.