Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 bxg
Bangala Language Ngala
Bangala is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 3.5 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Bangala is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Bangala
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- Central-Western Bantu
- North Zaire River
- Rivers Bantu
- Ngiri
- Ngiri Riverain Ubangi
- Ngiri Riverain Ubangi-Ripuaire
- Bobangic
- Bobangic Riverain
- Bobangi-Bangala-Lingala
- Lingala-Bangala
- Bangala
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Bangala language
Bangala (Ngala) is spoken by about 3.5 million people, which makes it the 226th most spoken language in the world — just behind Shan (3.6 million) and ahead of Galician (3.5 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Lingala-Bangala group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Bangala spoken?
Bangala is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in DR Congo (3.5 million).
Bangala is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bangala is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Lingala, Luba-Lulua, Umbundu, Kimbundu, Kituba (Democratic Republic of Congo), Koongo and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bxg.
Frequently asked questions about Bangala
How many people speak Bangala?
Where is Bangala spoken?
What language family does Bangala belong to?
What is Bangala called in Bangala?
Is Bangala an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.