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Zaire Other Indigenous Languages
The vast majority of languages spoken in Zaire are
Bantu
derivatives. Only in the north have other language groups
been
represented. Adamawa-Eastern languages are spoken in the
entire
northern portion of Zaire, interspersed in the east along
the Uele
River with Central Sudanic languages. In the far northeast
(from
Lake Albert north) the few Eastern Sudanic languages
spoken in
Zaire are heard, interspersed with Central Sudanic,
AdamawaEastern , and an occasional Bantu language. Crude estimates
of the
number of speakers of these language divisions have cited
80
percent of the population as speakers of Bantu languages.
The
remaining 20 percent may be divided, in declining numbers
of
speakers, among people speaking Adamawa-Eastern, Central
Sudanic,
and Eastern Sudanic languages.
Data as of December 1993
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