Image: Wikimedia Commons

Lingala

Bantu language spoken in western Central Africa

Languagenatural language modern languageQ36217

Also known as ln · Lingala language · Lingála · Ngala

Speakers: 20M(2020)
1
Sources
1.Stated in A Grammatical Overview of Lingala
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Subclass of: Bangi–Ntomba
Script: Latin script
Indigenous to: Kinshasa (commune)
, Bandundu Province
, Orientale Province
+2 more

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Lingala is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree as a trade language because of emigration in neighbouring Angola or Central African Republic. Lingala has 20 million native speakers and is used by another 20 million as a second language, for an approximate total of 40 million speakers. A significant portion of both Congolese diasporas speaks Lingala in their countries of immigration like Belgium, France or the United States.

Overview

Works in this language

34 linked to Lingala in Wikidata

Show all 34

All data

67 statements · 24% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Wikimedia language code: ln
Native label: Lingála
Lingala
lingála
1
Sources
1.github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/main/ln.xml
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Linguistic typology: subject–verb–object
agglutinative language
Ethnologue language status: 3 Wider Communication
1
Sources
1.Stated in Ethnologueethnologue.com/language/linRetrieved 2023-05-07
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Country: Republic of the Congo
1
Sources
1.“ScriptSource - Congo”scriptsource.org/country/CGRetrieved 2023-08-21
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Democratic Republic of the Congo
1
Sources
1.“ScriptSource - Democratic Republic of the Congo”scriptsource.org/country/CDRetrieved 2023-08-21
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Category for films in this language: Category:Lingala-language films

On other databases

40 identifiers linking Lingala across the web's reference databases

1.0000, 18.0000OpenStreetMap ↗

Data quality

statements

24%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 5, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). Lingala (Q36217). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/lingala-Q36217