Editing Kongo language (section)

==Linguistic classification==
Kikongo belongs to the Bantu language family.

According to [[Malcolm Guthrie]], Kikongo is in the language group H10, the [[Kongo languages]]. Other languages in the same group include [[Bembe language (Kibembe)|Bembe]] (H11). ''Ethnologue'' 16 counts Ndingi (H14) and Mboka (H15) as dialects of Kongo, though it acknowledges they may be distinct languages.

Bastin, Coupez and Man's classification of the language (as Tervuren) is more recent and precise than that of Guthrie on Kikongo. The former say the language has the following dialects:

*Kikongo group H16
**Southern Kikongo H16a
**Central Kikongo H16b
**Yombe (also called Kiyombe) H16c<ref>Maho 2009</ref>
**Fiote H16d
**Western Kikongo H16d
**Bwende H16e
**Ladi (Lari) H16f
**Eastern Kikongo H16g
**Southeastern Kikongo H16h

NB:<ref>Jasper DE KIND , Sebastian DOM, Gilles-Maurice DE SCHRYVER et Koen BOSTOEN, ''Fronted-infinitive constructions in Kikongo (Bantu H16): verb focus, progressive aspect and future'', KongoKing Research Group, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2013</ref><ref>Koen Bostoen et Inge Brinkman, ''The Kongo Kingdom: The Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity'', Cambridge University Press, 2018</ref><ref>Raphaël Batsîkama Ba Mampuya Ma Ndâwla, ''L'ancien royaume du Congo et les Bakongo, séquences d'histoire populaire'', L'harmattan, 2000</ref> Kisikongo is not the protolanguage of the Kongo language cluster. Not all varieties of Kikongo are mutually intelligible (for example, 1. Civili is better understood by Kiyombe- and Iwoyo-speakers than by Kisikongo- or Kimanianga-speakers; 2. Kimanianga is better understood by Kikongo of Boko and Kintandu-speakers than by Civili or Iwoyo-speakers).