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Tobias Barreto

Vili
Civili[1]
Native toRepublic of the Congo, Gabon
Native speakers
(100,000 cited 2000)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3vif
Glottologvili1238
H.12[3]

Vili (Civili) is one of the Zone H Bantu languages, grouped with the Kongo clade.

The language has a few thousand native speakers spread along the coast between southern Gabon and 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
Approximant w l j

Consonants may also be labialized [ʷ] when preceding /w/.[4][5]

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e ə o
Open-mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a

References

  1. ^ Civili is pronounced Tchivili and can also be pronounced Tshivili.
  2. ^ Vili at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. ^ Loëmbe, Gervais (2005). Parlons vili: langue et culture de Loango. Paris: L'Harmattan.
  5. ^ 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)