Editing Kongo language (section)

== Standardisation ==
The work of English, Swedish and other missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, in collaboration with Kongo linguists and evangelists such as Ndo Nzuawu Nlemvo (or Ndo Nzwawu Nlemvo; Dom João in Portuguese) and Miguel NeKaka, marked the standardisation of Kikongo.<ref>William Holman Bentley, ''Dictionary and grammar of the Kongo language as spoken at San Salvador, the ancient capital of the old Kongo Empire'', Baptist Missionary Society, The University of Michigan, 1887</ref><ref>Karl Edvard Laman, ''Nkanda wa bilekwa bianza uzayulwanga mpangulu ye nkadulu au'', Svenska missionsförbundet, S.M.S., Matadi, 1899</ref><ref>Karl Edvard Laman, ''Dictionnaire kikongo-français, avec une étude phonétique décrivant les dialectes les plus importants de la langue dite Kikongo'', bruxelles : Librairie Falk fils, 1936</ref><ref name=Divaportal>{{cite web|url=http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:280202/FULLTEXT01.pdf |language=fr|title=Publications en kikongo Bibliographie relative aux contributions suédoises entre 1885 et 1970 |work=DiVA portal, Bertil Söderberg & Ragnar Widman, L'institut scandinave d'etudes africaines, Uppsala et Le musée ethnographique, Stockholm, 1978|access-date=31 October 2023}}</ref>

{{citation bloc|A large proportion of the people at San Salvador, and in its neighbourhood, pronounce s and z before i as sh and j; for the sound sh, the letter x was adopted (as in Portuguese), while z before i was written as j. Our books are read over a much wider area than the district of San Salvador, and in those parts where s and z remain unchanged before i, the use of x and j has proved a difficulty; it has therefore been decided to use s and z only, and in those parts where the sound of these letters is softened before i they will be naturally softened in pronunciation, and where they remain unchanged they will be pronounced as written.|William Holman Bentley|Dictionary and grammar of the Kongo language as spoken at San Salvador, the ancient capital of the old Kongo Empire (1887)}}