Bobimisi bwa bobɔngɔ́

2019

Dieu ne comprend pas le lingala? Migrations religieuses et frontières raciales.
par Sarah Demart, Université de Liège

De grandes tendances se dégagent au point de constituer un champ d’études à part entière, défini par l’origine nationale des acteurs (Africains subsahariens) et par leurs pratiques religieuses (référant à un christianisme évangélique, charismatique et/ou pentecôtiste). Cependant, à y regarder de plus près, il semble que ces débats prennent une tournure particulière dans le contexte français, au regard de la permanence de catégories qui tendent à racialiser, pour ne pas dire pathologiser, l’attachement aux origines, en défendant l’hypothèse d’une racialisation des identités religieuses. Une thèse qui, on le verra, procède d’une ethnicisation des dynamiques socio-religieuses, à la faveur d’une décontextualisation de l’avènement de ces formes religieuses d’une part et de l’évacuation de toute réflexivité postcoloniale relative à la racialisation de la société globale, d’autre part.

The linguistic features of Bangala before Lingala : The pidginization of Bobangi in the 1880s and 1890s
by Michael Meeuwis, Ghent University

Described are the lexical and grammatical features of the pidgin Bangala, spoken between roughly 1880 and 1900. This formed the basis of what after 1900 became Lingala. Pre-1900 Bangala arose out of the pidginization of Bobangi in the context of the arrival of the first European conquerors and their African troops. First is discussed the sociohistorical evidence given by contemporaneous sourcesfor the emergence of Bangala out of Bobangi and its development then into Lingala. The bulk of the article then describes the linguistic features of the pidgin. This is done on the basis of contemporaneous sources, documenting the language as it was spoken in its own time, and on the basis of strict data selection criteria. The study of the colonial context and of the linguistics of pre-1900 Bangala is of major importance for our understanding of present-day Lingala and northeastern Bangala.

2018

2017

2016

A terminological approach to making a bilingual French-Lingala Dictionary for Congolese Primary Schools.
by Bienvenu Sene-Mongaba, Université Pédagogique Nationale, Kinshasa

In Kinshasa schools, the lack of teaching aids such as schoolbooks and dictionaries featuring Lingala is a great hurdle for teachers who strive to make full use of this language in the classroom. Dictionaries explaining French terms (language of instruction) in Lingala (language of daily communication) are therefore sorely needed, in the form of tools conceived to help teachers and students understand better, in Lingala, concepts named in French. I have thus chosen to adopt a terminological approach, in order to build a bilingual student’s dictionary through a set of domain-structured booklets.

2015

The Making of Lingala Corpus: An Under-resourced Language and the Internet.
by Bienvenu Sene-Mongaba, Université Pédagogique Nationale, Kinshasa

This paper has attempted to elucidate the issues that are involved with building a corpus for an under-resourced language where access to internet texts is
difficult. To extract Lingala text from a mass of French text, it has been necessary to go through a process of selection by seed words list. The raw corpus is composed of 6,080,426 tokens. I have intervened on the data from internet sources by standardizing the spelling. This standardized corpus is stored separately from the raw corpus.

'Official Language': the Case of Lingala
by William J. Samarin, University of Toronto, Canada

The fact that Lingala arose in a colonial context is of capital importance, and no full account of its history is adequate unless it looks at all the facets of colonization. Such a history will describe what whites, along with their African auxiliaries, were doing and also how the indigenous peoples responded to the presence and activities of these foreigners. This complex history is adumbrated in the present study by the examination of Protestant mission work.

2013

Lingála na Matéya ya nzebi na bitéyelo ya Kinshasa.
na Bienvenu Sene Mongaba, Boboongó ya Gent

Na Bikólo ebelé ya Afrika, míngimíngi pó na matéya ya nzebi, na bitéyelo ya katikáti pé ya likoló, batángisaka na minoko óyo bakolonizéláká bangó na yangó. Likambo ya monoko ya kotángisela, ezalí likambo óyo bato bazalí kondongwanela na yangó makási, tíí na mói ya leló. Ekokí kozwelama na ndéngé ya idolojí. Bankóló monoko bakomilobela : "bakoyéba bísó na monoko na bísó, esengélí tóbatela yangó". Ekokí pé kozwelama na ndéngé ya etángiseli. Bankóló monoko bakotála : mikakatano níni, bayékoli bazalí kokútana na yangó tángo bazalí koyékola na monoko ya bapaya, monoko óyo bayébí té, tó pé, monoko óyo bayébí malámu té. Ézala na ndéngé ya idolojí, ézala na ndéngé ya etángiseli, na mói ya leló, mibéko ya kokoma minoko míngi ya Afrika nánu efándísámí té. Ndéngé mókó pé, bibéngeli ya misálá óyo ekopésa minoko yangó nzelá ya kosálelama lokóla minoko ya kotángisela, nánu ekelámí nyónso té. Na boye, ezalí na boséngá ya konguyisa minoko ya Afrika pó balakisi bákoka kotángisa na yangó, na ndéngé ya malongá.

Boyékoli óyo ezalí kolandela makambo mínei : 1) kolakisa ezalelo na ndéngé ya sosiolengwisitíki (bomoi ya monoko na mbóka) ya bitéyelo ya Kinshasa. 2) kolakisa ndéngé níni balobi-Lingála batongaka masakoli ya polélé pé bibéngeli etongámá tángo balobaka. 3) kobimisa polélé boyókani káti na etongameli pé tína-maloba. Yangó ezalí pó na koyéba ndéngé ya kobótamisa bibéngeli ya nzebi pé mayéboli ya bobéndisi na Lingála. 4) kokundola mayéle eléndá pó na koyébanisa bibéngeli óyo ekelámí.


Le lingála dans l’enseignement des sciences dans les écoles de Kinshasa.
par Bienvenu Sene Mongaba, Université de Gand

Dans plusieurs pays africains, les langues héritées de la colonisation continuent à être utilisées comme langues d’enseignement dans le système scolaire, en particulier à l’école secondaire et à l’université et surtout pour les matières scientifiques. Il s’avère qu’à l’heure actuelle plusieurs langues africaines ne sont pas dotées d’une codification et d’une terminologie spécialisée leur per-
mettant d’assumer le rôle de langue d’enseignement. Il se pose donc la nécessité d’un renforcement des capacités de ces langues, afin de permettre aux enseignants de les utiliser de manière efficiente comme langues d’enseignement. Tel est le cadre dans lequel j’ai entrepris cette thèse de doctorat, qui a consisté en la mise sur pied d’une méthodologie de production et/ou de traduction de textes relatifs aux savoirs scientifiques, spécialement ceux de la chimie. Cette thèse aborde non seulement la question de la création terminologique mais aussi celle de l’insertion de cette terminologie dans la syntaxe et la sémantique du lingála dans une optique didactique, c’est-à-dire, dans la manière de rédiger, en lingála, des manuels et des exposés scolaires et académiques.

Le dictionnaire de chimie en lingála pour les élèves de Kinshasa
par Bienvenu Sene Mongaba, Université de Gand

L'approche traditionnel de lexicographe n'est pas adaptée pour des langues
dont les documents correspondant à la spécialité sont rares ou absents, tel que  le lingála dans le domaine de la chimie. Donc s'ajoutent des travaux de création terminologique, afin de permettre à ces dictionnaires de satisfaire les attentes des utilisateurs. Pour cela, le lexicographe adopte l'une des deux méthodologies suivantes: traduction ou définir des concepts et à produire les termes les
désignant directement dans la langue source, sans pour autant toujours disposer d'un corpus correspondant dans cette langue. Cet article décrit la démarche que nous avons suivie pour la réalisation d'un dictionnaire de chimie bilingue lingála–français à l'intention des enseignants et des élèves de la troisième année secondaire des écoles de Kinshasa.

2012

Directionality in Lingala.
by Nico Nassenstein, Universität Mainz

The present article analyzes concepts of directionality in Kinshasa-Lingala, a variety of Lingala. It provides a classification of motion, direction and manner constructions in Lingala and explores the use of the locative element na (which is often called a preposition in most grammars) in motion constructions, the use of (intrinsic) directional adverbial particles, a short analysis of right-left constructions in Lingala, as well as verbal strategies of expressing directionality with a focus on applicative constructions (both expressing directed motion and cognitive direction). A short insight into Lingala speakers’ mental maps, based on an orographic concept (thus based on real altitude), and some examples of directional applicative use in language contact situations will be presented before a general conclusion summarizes the principal ideas.


The Use of Lingála in the Teaching of Chemistry in DR Congo: A Socio-terminological Approach
by Bienvenu Sene Mongaba, Universiteit Gent

The research focuses on the use of Lingála as a vehicular language for the teaching of chemistry in province of Kinshasa. Kinshasa students speak Lingála in their daily life, but in the classroom French is the language of instruction. The lack of adequate terminology reportedly makes it difficult for teachers and researchers to work in their mother tongues. In our opinion, there are at least two solutions to this problem. The first is the much explored path of reinforcing the command of French, English or Portuguese by African students. The second is the less explored path of testing whether it would be possible and beneficial to create or reinforce scientific terminology in African major national languages. In this paper we strive to explore the second path.

2009

Involvement in Language: The Role of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae in the History of Lingala
by Michael Meeuwis, University of Gent, Belgium

 

2008

Directives in Lingala: Participation and Subjectivity
by Annette Renée Harrison, University of California, Santa Barbara, California

The analysis focuses on three directive forms: rhetorical questions, coordinating commands and ritual language used in prayer. For each typeof directive it discuss the relationship between the form and its interactional context and provide examples that illustrate its structural features and how participants recognize them as directives, as well as discussing the source of their directive force. The use of these directives requires experience in the church context, knowledge of the interactional practices of the group and accompanying linguistic skills, which are unequally distributed among the group’s members and produce a social organization dominated by the most knowledgeable and experienced members.

 

2006

Les Usages linguistiques à Brazzaville : la place du Français. 
par Omer Massoumou, Université Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville

Brazzaville est de considérer  comme un espace plurilingue où les gens parlent ou utilisent quotidiennement plusieurs langues. Les usages des langues sont abordés ici dans une perspective de pratique d’un code linguistique bien défini. Il est question de déterminer le nombre de langues qu’un locuteur utilise régulièrement pour communiquer avec autrui. Les problèmes d’alternance codique, des contacts de langues ne seront donc pas traités dans ces lignes. Par ailleurs c’est plutôt l’idée de production langagière qui est à retenir que
celle de consommation.


The Lingála-Kiswahili border in north-eastern Congo Its origins in Belgian colonial state formation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
by Michael Meeuwis, Ghent University.

The aim should be to reconstruct the backgrounds against which the data that are now used in Africana were originally collected, interpreted and transmitted. There are different benefits to be drawn from this. First of all, every discipline has to be concerned with identifying what is missing in its raw data. Second, an examination of linguistic and ethnological research practices in colonial contexts can shed light on the roles these practices played. Third, a historiography of Africana is the best way towards an understanding of the different ‘statuses’ of our primary sources. Comparative linguists poorly informed on the socio-historical backgrounds of their monographic sources run the risk of integrating into the comparison publications that were conceived with widely diverging aims, ranging from the highest degrees of description to the clearest types of intervention and planning, with many types in between. Fourth, a historiography of our sources proves its usefulness when considering the reality of feedback effects.

2005

Aspects of Multilingualism in the Lingala Zone of Congo.
by Myles Leitch, SIL

To approach the analysis of multilingualism, it is necessary to distinguish the functional, symbolic, institutional, policy-related (political), and geographical aspects of each language in a multilingual system. It is then possible to see how the languages function systematically, with respect to each other in a national or regional context. Each of the languages involved in the Congo system is analyzed according to this template. Benefits of this approach, implications
for the work of bilingual evaluation, and general language program planning are discussed.

2003

Les langues africaines sur la Toile : Étude des cas haoussa, somali, lingala et isixhosa.
par Anneleen Van der Veken, Université libre de Bruxelles
et Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Université de Gand

Les langues africaines sont présentes sur la Toile. Cette présence facilite la création de corpus linguistiques. Pour illustrer notre propos et notre méthodologie, nous nous concentrons sur quelques langues des quatre coins de l’Afrique. La taille et la composition des corpus respectifs donnent une idée de ce qui est disponible sur la Toile pour ces langues et permettent aussi de comparer ces langues entre elles. Afin d’illustrer le potentiel de ces corpus
linguistiques nous fabriquerons, à titre d’exemple, des logiciels de grande utilité: à savoir, des correcteurs d’orthographe pour chacune de ces langues africaines.

1997

Des lexiques en langues africaines (sängö, wolof, lingála) pour l'utilisateur de l'ordinateur.
par Marcel Diki-Kidiri, CNRS, Paris, Chérif Mbodj, Université Dakar et Atibakwa Baboya Edema, CELTA, Kinshasa

Les auteurs s'intéressent à l'expression d'un même savoir dans des langues et des cultures differentes, en analysant minutieuseuement les processus de conceptionalisation mis en oeuvre dans la langue de chaque culture. Cela permet d'aborder des questions techniques relatives à la terminographie en langues africaines; les exigences de l'utilisateur par rapport à la néologie et à la langue de spécialité; la question du support: lexique hypermédia versus lexique sur papier.

 

1991

The Origins of Lingala and Kituba.

by William J. Samarin, in: Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 12.47–77. 

Considered here is the relationship between the nature of more-or-less pidginized Kituba and Lingala and their function as lingua francos in equatorial central Africa. It is argued that although they may have been preceded by widely known ethnic languages, it seems more probable that their pidginization and creation as lingua francos took place in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. 

 

1986

Protestant Missions and the History of Lingala.
by William J. Samarin, University of Toronto, Canada

Language served the missionaries as a means to penetrate the heart of Africa. The relationship between language use and territorial occupation is in fact not accidental. This paper reveals how they are related in mission policy - and how differences trough time were reflected in changing linguistic policies. Can be read online with a free account. No download.

 

1959

Bantu Philosophy.
by Placide Tempels

Colin King has, in this translation of Father Tempels' study of Bantu philosophy,
conferred a great benefit on those students of African life and thought who use the English language for reading. Ever since I saw the French edition published by Lovania in 1945, I have recommended the study to all who could use it in French. I have memories, too, of more than one African or Sudanese or Chinese student, who did not read French, sitting beside an English fellow student in the little seminar room under the roof, while they worked together on the ideas put forward by Father Tempels with such intimate knowledge and eloquence.
Every year, in the seminar to which Mr. King refers, someone raises a question touching on the philosophic thought of African peoples. When they are referred to Father Tempels' study, there has often been dismay because it has only been available in French. Mr. King himself, as he says in his Translator's Note, worked on an English translation for his own continuous use and very generously made it available for use by others in the Department in which he
holds at present a post as lecturer. It was clear, however, that for the English speaking world there was a great need to have access to this study, and all of us who have made use of it in the past will welcome the fact that an English edition is now available.

1946

Bantoe Filosofie.
van Placide Tempels

1945

La Philosophie Bantu (traduit par A. Rubbens).
La Philosophie Bantu (traduit par E. Possoz, inédit).
par Placide Tempels