Tshiluba
Spoken in:	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region:	Kasaï Occidental province , Kasaï Oriental province
Total speakers:	6.3 million (1991)
Ranking:	See [1] http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/help/top-100-languages-by-population.html Not in top 100
Genetic classification:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Narrow Bantu       Tshiluba
Official status
Official language of:	-
Regulated by:	-
Language codes
ISO 639-1	-
ISO 639-2	lua
SIL	LUB

Contents

1 Classification 2 Geographic distribution 2.1 Dialects 3 Vocabulary 4 Sources 5 External links

Classification

Tshiluba belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages.

Geographic distribution

Tshiluba is spoken by about 6.3 million people in the Kasaï Occidental and Kasaï Oriental provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dialects

There are significant dialect differences between the East Kasai Region (Baluba people) and the West Kasai Region (Bena Lulua people).

Vocabulary

The Bantu word identified in June 2004 by Today's Translations, a British translation company, as the most untranslatable in the world: ilunga, in the Tshiluba tongue, means "a person ready to forgive any abuse the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". However, it is more likely to be a personal name rather than a difficult word.

Sources

• MacIntyre, Ben. Why do Koreans say 'a biscuit would be nice' instead of 'I want a biscuit'?, The Times, August 21, 2004.

External links

• Ethnologue report on Tshiluba http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=LUB
• BBC News: Congo word "most untranslatable" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3830521.stm