Symbols
79Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Kiluba alphabet
One row per letter in CLDR's Kiluba order, with the tone-marked vowels beside their base letter: acute ´ for high tone, grave ` for low tone. G is added after F because names such as Kasongo and Ilunga need it; Ɛ and Ɔ follow E and O as in CLDR.
Quotation marks
French-language Congolese print uses guillemets « »; CLDR's Kiluba locale specifies curly quotes “ ”, which are also common online.
Where it's spoken
DR Congo, where CLDR estimates about 2.7 million Kiluba speakers. The Congolese franc has no Unicode sign: it is written FC (5 000 FC), code CDF.
Kiluba in emoji
👑 Mulopwe, the Luba king; 🪑 the carved royal stool, the best-known Luba artwork.
On the map
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The Kiluba alphabet
Kiluba (Luba-Katanga) uses a 22-letter Latin alphabet: a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p s t u v w y z. It has no c or q in its standard alphabet and no r or x in native words; in loanwords that have an r, Kiluba speakers often say l instead. The letter g is included in its alphabet and appears in ng sequences, as in names such as Kasongo, Ilunga, Kalunga and Kabongo.
As in other Bantu languages, much of the work is done by prefixes rather than by special letters. One Luba person is a Muluba, the people are the Baluba, and their language is Kiluba: the same root -luba with the prefixes mu-, ba- and ki-. The same pattern gives muntu, a person, and bantu, people. Groups of consonants such as mb, nd, ng, nk and ny are written with ordinary letters, as in Mbudye, Ngoy and Malemba-Nkulu.
The five vowels a e i o u are pronounced roughly as in Spanish or Italian, so Leza, God, is said LEH-zah.
Kiluba tone accents: á à and the others
Kiluba is a tonal language: whether a syllable is said high or low can change the meaning of a word. Everyday writing, in hymn books, letters and text messages, leaves tone unmarked, because readers know the words. Dictionaries, grammars and teaching materials mark it with accents: the acute for a high tone (á é í ó ú) and the grave for a low tone (à è ì ò ù), often marking only one of the two.
CLDR's “Characters in Use” data for Kiluba lists lowercase a, e, i, o, u, ɛ and ɔ with acute and grave forms (á/à, é/è, í/ì, ó/ò, ú/ù, ɛ́/ɛ̀ and ɔ́/ɔ̀); it lists no accented capitals. The accent sits on the vowel and does not change the letter's place in alphabetical order.
CLDR also lists the open vowels ɛ (U025B, capital Ɛ U0190) and ɔ (U0254, capital Ɔ U0186). They are everyday letters of Lingala and other languages of the region; in Kiluba, which has five vowels, you will meet them rarely, mostly in linguistic transcriptions. They are not the Greek ε or a reversed c, so copy them from the grid rather than imitating them.
How to type Kiluba accents
On a phone, hold a vowel key: a long press on a offers á and à, and the same works for e, i, o and u. On Windows with the US-International keyboard, type ' and then the vowel for an acute (á) and and then the vowel for a grave (à). With the number pad, Alt0225 gives á, Alt0224 à, Alt0233 é, Alt0232 è, Alt0237 í, Alt0236 ì, Alt0243 ó, Alt0242 ò, Alt0250 ú and Alt0249 ù. The French AZERTY keyboard, which is also used in DR Congo, has é and è on keys of their own.
On a Mac, OptionE then a vowel gives the acute (á) and Option then a vowel gives the grave (à). For ɛ and ɔ there is no Alt code: in Word type 025B or 0254 and press AltX, on a Mac use the Character Viewer, and in HTML write ɛ for ɛ and ɔ for ɔ. Or simply copy them from this page.
Where Luba-Katanga is spoken
Kiluba is spoken in the south-east of DR Congo , in the former Katanga region: the Luba heartland along the upper Lualaba river and the Upemba lakes, around towns such as Kamina, Kabongo, Bukama and Malemba-Nkulu. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 2.7 million speakers. In Katanga's big cities, such as Lubumbashi and Likasi, Swahili is the common street language, and French is the language of government and secondary schools.
Kiluba is a Bantu language. Its best-known relative is Luba-Lulua (Tshiluba, or Luba-Kasai) of the Kasai provinces: the two share the Luba name, history and much vocabulary, but they are different languages with their own spelling, so Tshiluba vs Kiluba is a real distinction. Kaonde, Bemba and Lunda, spoken further south and in Zambia, trace parts of their history to the Luba lands. Each of these, along with Swahili, Lingala, Kongo and French, has its own collection here, and the Congo – Kinshasa collection has the flag and the country's emoji.
The Luba kingdom and its words
From around the 17th century to the late 19th, the Luba kingdom ruled much of this region from the Upemba depression. Its king had the title Mulopwe, and its founding epic tells of the harsh king Nkongolo Mwamba, the hunter prince Mbidi Kiluwe and his son Kalala Ilunga, the hero who founded Luba kingship. The epic is still told and recited among the Luba.
Luba art is world-famous: carved wooden stools held up by kneeling women, which stood for the king's authority, and the lukasa, a hand-held memory board studded with beads and shells that experts of the Mbudye society read to recite history, king lists and sacred knowledge. Today Kiluba is heard above all in church: the Bible, hymn books and Kiluba gospel songs keep the written language alive.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyKiluba Letters & Accents combos
10Worth knowing
- Kiluba, Muluba and Baluba are one word with three prefixes: ki- for the language, mu- for one person, ba- for the people.
- A lukasa memory board holds no writing at all: its beads, shells and carved shapes were read by Mbudye experts as a map of history and of the kingdom.
- The open e ɛ in CLDR's Kiluba list is a letter of its own , taken from the International Phonetic Alphabet into many African alphabets; it only looks like the Greek ε.
- Kiluba and Tshiluba share the name Luba, but a Kiluba speaker from Katanga and a Tshiluba speaker from Kasai each speak a language of their own.
Questions people ask
7What is the Kiluba language?
Kiluba, or Luba-Katanga, is a Bantu language of south-eastern DR Congo, the language of the Baluba of Katanga. CLDR estimates about 2.7 million speakers, mainly in the former Katanga region along the upper Lualaba.
Tshiluba vs Kiluba: are they the same?
No. Kiluba (Luba-Katanga) is spoken in Katanga, Tshiluba (Luba-Lulua or Luba-Kasai) in the Kasai provinces. They are close relatives with a shared Luba history and much shared vocabulary, but they are separate languages with their own spelling.
What is the Kiluba alphabet?
The 22-letter Latin alphabet is a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p s t u v w y z, with no c or q in the standard alphabet and no r or x in native words. Dictionaries add tone accents (á à é è í ì ó ò ú ù), and CLDR lists the open-vowel characters ɛ and ɔ.
Does Kiluba use accents?
Only to mark tone, and mostly in dictionaries and teaching materials: the acute for a high tone and the grave for a low tone. Everyday Kiluba texts are written without accents.
How do I type á and à for Kiluba?
On a phone, hold the vowel key. On Windows, Alt0225 is á and Alt0224 is à (or ' and before the vowel on US-International); on a Mac, Option+E or Option+ and then the vowel.
Where is Luba-Katanga spoken?
In the south-east of DR Congo, in the former Katanga region, around Kamina, Kabongo, Bukama and Malemba-Nkulu along the upper Lualaba, and among Luba families in cities such as Lubumbashi.
What is the Congolese franc symbol?
It has no Unicode sign. The Congolese franc is written FC after the amount (5 000 FC), and its code is CDF.
