Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 lin · ln
Lingala Language Lingála
Lingala is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 20 million people in 4 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Lingala is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Lingala
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
- Lingala
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Lingala language
Lingala (Lingála) is spoken by about 20 million people, which makes it the 72nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Magahi (21 million) and ahead of Mesopotamian Arabic (17 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Lingala-Bangala group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Lingala spoken?
Lingala is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in DR Congo (3.6 million), Angola (249,254), Republic of the Congo (146,344) and Central African Republic (13,562).
Share of the population that speaks Lingala: DR Congo 3.1% (3.6 million), Angola 0.7% (249,254), Republic of the Congo 2.4% (146,344) and Central African Republic 0.2% (13,562).
Lingala is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in DR Congo.
Writing system and status
Lingala 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 Bangala, Luba-Lulua, Umbundu, Kimbundu, Kituba (Democratic Republic of Congo), Koongo and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ln, ISO 639-3 lin.
Frequently asked questions about Lingala
How many people speak Lingala?
Where is Lingala spoken?
What language family does Lingala belong to?
What is Lingala called in Lingala?
Is Lingala 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.