Mongo language

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.

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

Consonants

 * /d͡z/ can be heard as alveolar or dental [d̪͡z̪] and /t͡s/ can be alveolar or postalveolar [t͡ʃ], when before front vowels.

Proverbs and fables
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. Ruskin's style of English transliteration gives no indication as to the tones.

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 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.