A two-way dictionary of Bangala and Bwa (Bantu languages of the DRC), and English

This work, a computer print-out, was created with the assistance of Jeanne van Oosten (Linguisics) and Walter Berndl (Computer Science), University of Toronto supported by a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Committee, University of Toronto, for Jean Van Oosten, a graduate student in linguistics. The dictionary also includes entries for what was called the Moganzulu language, Liganzulu in recent years. But some consider Baganzulu a clan name, and the language, a Bantu one, is referred to now as Bwa or Libwa, among other names. The ethnic group inhabits Bas-Uele District of the Oriental Province of north-eastern DRC, the administrative center of which is the town of Buta, about 300 km in a straight line from the Ubangi River. The handbook was published by the Norbertijner Mission at the Abbey located in Tongerloo, Belgium. I discovered it in its library while examining the Africanist collection and was allowed to copy the contents. For more information on Bangala see Samarin 1986 (Protestant missions and the history of Lingala, Journal of Religion in Africa,16:138-163) and Samarin 1990 (The origins of Kituba and Lingala, Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 12:47-77). With precaution and reservations see also Atibakwa Baboya Edema. 1989. Essai de description phonologique du monoko na bangála, langue véhiculaire de Haut-Zaïre (A provisional phonological description of Bangala, the vehicular language of Upper Zaire [wjs]). Mémoire de D.E.A. [Diplôme d'études approfondies]. Département de Linguistique africaine, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III. Consulted in 2009 at the Bibliothèque de linguistique africaine, 19 rue des Bernardins, Paris, France