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Almost 242 languages are spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Zaire. Languages of Zaire are as many as their ethnic groups. Mainly four Zaire languages enjoy national status, namely Kongo, Swahili, Lingala and Tshiluba. The official language of Zaire is French.
French is considered to be an ethnically neutral language, which ease communication between all the different ethnic groups residing in the Congo. The dominating languages of Zaire however are Lingala, Azande, Chokwe, Kongo and Luba. Zaire belongs to the Niger-Congo Family, which have almost 900 languages divided in nine branches.
The Niger-Congo Family features the many languages of Africa south of the Sahara. The family originated in West Africa. Migrations took the languages to eastern and southern Africa. There are over 900 languages in this family in nine branches. The diverse ethnicity in Zaire have resulted in varied languages even across the national frontiers
Africa's borders reflect colonial history rather than linguistic boundaries. For this reason, many of these languages are spoken across national frontiers. In east and southern Zaire the languages include Swahili, Kikuyu, Ruanda, Bemba, Rundi, Luba, Lingala and Kongo. There are 5 languages spoken by the Bantu tribes alone.
The languages in Zaire have tones, which are used either for meaning but mostly for grammar. Banda is a language that has three tones while Efik has four tones and uses m and n as vowels. Languages of Zaire are popular all over Africa and easily understandable by the inhabitants. The un familiar people may assume the meaning by prominent body gestures and tones used.
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