Mongo, also called Nkundo or Mongo-Nkundu (Lomongo, Lonkundu), is a Bantu language spoken by several of the Mongo peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mongo speakers reside in the north-west of the country over a large area inside the curve of the Congo River. Mongo is a tonal language.
Contents
Dialects
There are several dialects. Maho (2009) lists one of these, Bafoto (Batswa de l'Equateur), C.611, as a separate language. The others are:
Kutu (Bakutu), including Longombe
Bokote, including Ngata
Booli
Bosaka
Konda (Ekonda), including Bosanga-Ekonda
Ekota
Emoma
Ikongo, including Lokalo-Lomela
Iyembe
Lionje, Nsongo, Ntomba
Yamongo
Mbole, including Nkengo, Yenge, Yongo, Bosanga-Mbole, Mangilongo, Lwankamba
Nkole
South Mongo, including Bolongo, Belo, Panga, Acitu
Yailima
Ngombe-Lomela, Longombe, Ngome à Múná
Phonology
Consonants
/d͡z/ can be heard as alveolar or dental [d̪͡z̪] and /t͡s/ can be alveolar or postalveolar [t͡ʃ], when before front vowels.
Oral literature
In 1921, Edward Algernon Ruskin, a Christian missionary at Bongandanga from 1891 until 1935 in what was then the Belgian Congo, published Mongo Proverbs and Fables, with the Mongo text and an English translation. As Ruskin explains in the foreword to the book, his goal was to train missionaries in the Mongo language. The book contains 405 Mongo proverbs. Here are some examples:
"Ntambaka jit'a nkusa." ("You do not go hunting porcupines and collecting bark for making string at the same time.") (#88)
"Nkema ntawaka ndesanya." ("A monkey is not killed by merely watching it.") (#172)
"Ise aomaki njoku, beke bempate nko?" ("Your father killed an elephant, then where are your tusks?") (#219)
"Tusake wese; wunyu botaka 'akata." ("Do not throw away a bone; a piece of lean meat has not yet fallen into your hands.") (#389)
There are also 21 Mongo fables in the book, including a story about Ulu, the trickster Tortoise.
In an earlier booklet, Proverbs, Fables, Similes and Sayings of the Bamongo, published in 1897, Ruskin provides a word by word analysis of some Mongo proverbs, often accompanied by a brief fable.
In 1909, Frederick Starr published a collection of 150 Nkundo (Mongo) proverbs with English translations, "Proverbs of Upper Congo," which he selected from a 1904 publication, Bekolo bi' ampaka ba Nkundo. Bikolongo la nsako. Beki Bakola otakanyaka (Stories of the Elders of Nkundo: Adages and Proverbs Gathered by Bakola) by Bakola, also known as Ellsworth Farris, and Royal J. Dye, missionaries based near Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka). Here are some of those proverbs:
"Bobimbo nko lobya, nk'ome w'etuka." "The bobimbo bears no great flowers, but what large fruit it has (i.e. show is not always a sign of substance)." (#24)