Aspects of multilingualism in the Lingala zone of Congo

To approach the analysis of multilingualism, it is necessary to distinguish the functional, symbolic, institutional, policy-related (political), and geographical aspects of each language in a multilingual system. It is then possible to see how the languages function systematically, with respect to each other in a national or regional context. Each of the languages involved in the Congo system is analyzed according to this template. Benefits of this approach, implications for the work of bilingual evaluation, and general language program planning are discussed. See Langue et Dialecte au Sud du District d'Epena (SILESR 2004-007) for a related paper by this author.