World Language Map

Where is Congo Swahili spoken?

Congo Swahili is an Atlantic-Congo language, spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Where Congo Swahili is spoken

Congo Swahili is spoken in one country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Country
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Congo Swahili has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Congo Swahili?

Wikidata gives about 1,000 first-language speakers (Ethnologue, 1991). It also lists about 9.1 million second-language speakers (Ethnologue, 1991). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Not endangered. Glottolog lists it as not endangered: it is still being passed on to children.

Where Congo Swahili sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Congo Swahili as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Atlantic-Congo
  2. Volta-Congo
  3. Benue-Congo
  4. Bantoid
  5. Southern Bantoid
  6. Narrow Bantu
  7. East Bantu
  8. Northeast Savanna Bantu
  9. Northeast Coastal Bantu
  10. Coastal NEC Bantu
  11. Sabaki-Swahili
  12. Swahili (G.40)
  13. Mombasa-Lamu-Inland Swahili
  14. Congo Swahili

Related languages

Other languages in the Mombasa-Lamu-Inland Swahili group:

More about Congo Swahili

Codes: ISO 639-3 swc, Glottolog cong1236. Glottolog macroarea: Africa.

Questions about Congo Swahili

Where is Congo Swahili spoken?

Congo Swahili is spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Congo Swahili?

Wikidata gives about 1,000 first-language speakers (Ethnologue, 1991). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled. It also lists about 9.1 million second-language speakers (Ethnologue, 1991).

Which language family is Congo Swahili in?

Glottolog places Congo Swahili in the Atlantic-Congo family, in the branch Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Bantoid, Narrow Bantu, East Bantu, Northeast Savanna Bantu, Northeast Coastal Bantu, Coastal NEC Bantu, Sabaki-Swahili, Swahili (G.40) and Mombasa-Lamu-Inland Swahili.

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