| Nativename | Civili[1] |
|---|---|
| States | Republic of the Congo, Gabon |
| Speakers | 100,000 |
| Date | 2000 |
| Ref | e18 |
| Familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| Fam 2 | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam 3 | Benue–Congo |
| Fam 4 | Bantoid |
| Fam 5 | Bantu (Zone H) |
| Fam 6 | Kongo (Kikongo, H.10) |
| Iso 3 | vif |
| Guthrie | H.12 |
| Glotto | vili1238 |
| Glottorefname | Vili |
Vili (Civili, Tshivili) is one of the Zone H Bantu languages, grouped with the Kongo clade.
The language has a few thousand native speakers along the coast between southern Gabon and northern Cabinda, most of them in the Republic of the Congo's Kouilou, Pointe-Noire and Niari departments. The Vili people (singular Muvili, plural Bavili) were the population of the 17th- to 18th-century Kingdom of Loango in the same region.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |
| prenasal vl. | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᶮt͡ʃ | ᵑk | |
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ||
| voiced | v | z | |||
| prenasal vl. | ᶬf | ⁿs | |||
| prenasal vd. | ᶬv | ⁿz | |||
| Rhotic | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
Consonants may also be labialized [ʷ] when preceding /w/.[2][3]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Close-mid | e eː | ə | o oː |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
| Open | a aː |
References
- ^ Civili is pronounced Chivili.
- ^ Loëmbe, Gervais (2005). Parlons vili: langue et culture de Loango. Paris: L'Harmattan.
- ^ Tele-Pemba, Audrey Mariette (2009). Éléments pour une approche comparée des emprunts lexicaux du civili du Gabon, du Congo-Brazzaville et du Cabinda: proposition d'un modèle de dictionnaire. Libreville: Université Omar Bongo.
External links
- Vili at WolframAlpha