Tshiluba (also called Luba-Kasai and Luba-Lulua) is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is a national language.

Classification

Tshiluba belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. It is the language of the Baluba people.

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 (Luba 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

• Online Cilubà - French Dictionary
• Ethnologue report on Tshiluba
• BBC News: Congo word "most untranslatable"
• PanAfrican L10n page on Luba

de:Tschiluba es:Tshiluba eo:Luba lingvo fr:Tchiluba ko:??? ln:Ciluba nl:Tshiluba no:Luba pt:Língua tshiluba fi:Luban kieli wa:Tchilouba