Tshiluba language

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{{language |name=Tshiluba |nativename= |states=Democratic Republic of the Congo |region=Kasai-Occidental and Kasai-Oriental provinces |speakers=6,300,000 (1991) |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic-Congo |fam3=Volta-Congo |fam4=Benue-Congo |fam5=Bantoid |fam6=Southern |fam7=Narrow Bantu |fam8=Central |fam9=L |fam10=Luba |iso2=lua|iso3=lua}}

Tshiluba (also called Luba-Kasai and Luba-Lulua) is a Narrow Bantu spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is a national language.

1 Classification
2 Geographic distribution
- 2.1 Dialects
3 Vocabulary
4 Sources
5 External links

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Classification

Tshiluba belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages.

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Geographic distribution

Tshiluba is spoken by about 6.3 million people in the Kasaï Occidental and Kasaï Oriental provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Dialects

There are significant dialect differences between the East Kasai Region (Baluba people) and the West Kasai Region (Bena Lulua people).

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Vocabulary

The Bantu word identified in June 2004 by Today's Translations, a British translation company, as the most untranslatable in the world: ilunga, in the Tshiluba tongue, means "a person ready to forgive any abuse the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". However, it is more likely to be a personal name rather than a difficult word.

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