Kongo language

Kongo
Kikongo
Native to	DR Congo (Kongo Central), Angola, Republic of the Congo, Gabon
Ethnicity	Kongo
Native speakers	(L1: 6.0 million cited 1982–2021)[1] L2: 5.0 million (2021)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone H) Kongo-Yaka Kongo languages (H.16) Kongo
Writing system	Latin, Mandombe
Official status
Official language in	National language and unofficial language:  Angola
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kg
ISO 639-2	kon
ISO 639-3	kon – inclusive code Individual codes: kng – Koongo ldi – Ladi, Laadi, Lari or Laari kwy – San Salvador Kongo (South) yom – Yombe
Glottolog	yomb1244  Yombe
Guthrie code	H.14–16[2]
Map of the area where Kongo and Kituba are spoken, Kituba as a lingua franca. Kisikongo (also called Kisansala by some authors) is the Kikongo spoken in Mbanza Kongo.

Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. It is a tonal language. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo in the above-named countries. An estimated five million more speakers use it as a second language.^[1]

Historically, it was spoken by many of those Africans who for centuries were taken captive, transported across the Atlantic, and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language, which formed in the Low Country and Sea Islands of the United States Southeast.^[3] The Palenquero creole in Colombia is also related to Kong creole.