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Language code: kg

Technical information about ISO 639 language code kg

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Kongo language, designated by the kg code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

kg

Name

Official

Kongo

Native

Kikongo

Family
Bantu
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Central KongoEastern KongoSouthern KongoSan Salvador KongoLaariYombe
Related languages
LingalaKitubaKimbunduTshilubaSwahili
Key facts
Bantu language of the Kongo branchUses about 18 noun classes marked with prefixesLexical tone distinguishes both words and grammatical categoriesEarliest surviving texts date to 17th-century missionary catechisms produced in the Kingdom of KongoVocabulary has influenced Afro-American ritual speech systems such as Palo and Candomblé.
Sample phrase

Mbote, ngeye ke bika mbote?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Kongo belongs to the Niger-Congo language family, more specifically to the Bantu subgroup. It is one of the national languages used in Angola, and it is also used in some parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. It is primarily written using the Latin script, although the Mandombe script is also used, albeit to a lesser extent. It is estimated that there are more than 6 million Kongo speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

Angola

2.8M

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Kongo speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

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