1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Subfamily: Benue-Congo
  3. Genus: Bantoid

Lingala

WALS coordinates: 2° N, 18° 30′ E

spoken in Democratic Republic of Congo

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Losengo
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Losengo
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Nominal Categories
    Number of Genders Five or more
    Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Non-sex-based
    Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic and formal
    Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem + pronominal plural affix
    Verbal Categories
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular
    The Prohibitive Special imperative + normal negative
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Both types of system
    The Optative Inflectional optative absent
    Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
    Epistemic Possibility Other
    Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
    Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
    Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Double-object construction
    Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
    Applicative Constructions Benefactive and other; both bases
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
    Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
    Comparative Constructions Exceed
    Complex Sentences
    Relativization on Subjects Gap
    Relativization on Obliques Pronoun-retention
    'Want' Complement Subjects Both construction types exist
    Lexicon
    Tea Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te