Kituba

Kituba, also known as Kikongo ya Leta or Munukutuba, is a Bantu-based lingua franca spoken in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Republic of the Congo. It originated as a pidgin or creole form of Kikongo and developed as a common language for interethnic communication in trade and administration along the Congo River. Today it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the region, with millions of speakers, and functions as a lingua franca in urban centers, markets, and local media.

Kituba uses the Latin alphabet and shows a simplified grammar compared with Kikongo: a reduced noun class system, a predominantly subject–verb–object word order, and a vocabulary drawn primarily from Kikongo with loanwords from French, Portuguese, and neighboring languages such as Lingala and Swahili. The language has regional varieties, and mutual intelligibility with other Kikongo varieties ranges from high to moderate.

Although not an official national language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kituba holds a prominent role in everyday communication and public life in many western provinces, complementing the official language policy that includes French and other national languages. Kituba thus functions as a key linguistic bridge in the Congo Basin, linking diverse communities across Kinshasa, Brazzaville, and surrounding rural areas.