Bongo language
Bongo, also known as Dor, is a Central Sudanic language spoken by the Bongo people in sparsely populated areas of Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan.
A 2013 survey reported that ethnic Bongo reside in Bussere Boma, Bagari Payam, Wau County, South Sudan.
Tone
Bongo is tonal language that has the high, mid, low and falling tones.All falling tones occur on either long vowels or on vowel clusters or glides. When the tonal fall is not due to a preceding high tone, it can be indicated by a high tine followed by a low tone
| Ton | Example | Translation |
| high | hungry | |
| low | Pounded sesame | |
| falling | /táà/ | when |
Numerals
Bongo has a quinary-vigesimal numeral system.| Number | Bongo word |
| 1 | kɔ̀tʊ́ |
| 2 | ŋɡɔ̀r |
| 3 | mʊ̀tːà |
| 4 | ʔɛ́w |
| 5 | múì |
| 6 | dɔ̀kɔtʊ́ |
| 7 | dɔ́ŋɡɔr |
| 8 | dɔ̀mʊ́tːà |
| 9 | dɔ̀mʔɛ́w |
| 10 | kɪ̀ː |
| 11 | kɪː̀ kɔ̀tʊ́ |
| 12 | kɪː̀ ŋɡɔ̀r |
| 13 | kɪː̀ mʊ̀tːà |
| 14 | kɪː̀ ʔɛ́w |
| 15 | kɪː̀ múì |
| 16 | kɪː̀ dɔ̀kɔtʊ́ |
| 17 | kɪː̀ dɔ́ŋɡɔr |
| 18 | kɪː̀ dɔ̀mʊ́tːà |
| 19 | kɪː̀ dɔ̀mʔɛ́w |
| 20 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ |
| 21 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɔ̀tʊ́ |
| 22 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ŋɡɔ̀r |
| 23 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː mʊ̀tːà |
| 24 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ʔɛ́w |
| 25 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː múì |
| 26 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀kɔtʊ́ |
| 27 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ́ŋɡɔr |
| 28 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʊ́tːà |
| 29 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʔɛ́w |
| 30 | mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː |
| 40 | mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r |
| 50 | mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː |
| 60 | mbàba mʊ̀tːà |
| 70 | mbàba mʊ̀tːà dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː |
| 80 | mbàba ʔɛ́w |
| 90 | mbàba ʔɛ́w dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː |
| 100 | mbàla múì |
| 200 | mbàba múì dɔ̀ː múì |
| 1000 | mbuda kɔ̀tʊ́ |
| 2000 | mbuda ŋɡɔ̀r |
Scholarship
The first ethnologists to work with the Bongo language were John Petherick, who published Bongo word lists in his 1861 work, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa; Theodor von Heuglin, who also published Bongo word lists in Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nil, &c. 1862-1864 in 1869; and Georg August Schweinfurth, who contributed sentences and vocabularies in his Linguistische Ergebnisse, Einer Reise Nach Centralafrika in 1873. E. E. Evans-Pritchard published additional Bongo word lists in 1937.More recent scholarship has been done by Eileen Kilpatrick, who published a phonology of Bongo in 1985.