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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the phonology and morphology of
Mono, a Banda language found in the northwestern corner of the Democratic Republic of
Congo (D. R. Congo, formerly Zaire). Specifically, I am concerned here with the Bili
dialect of Mono.
The term Mono is used by the Mono people themselves (and by outsiders) to refer
to the language that they speak. The Mono people refer to themselves as the = =, = =
adding the = prefix which marks plural on animate nouns. Some references, such as
Tucker & Bryan (1956: 33) and Kamanda (1998), list this as = =. = = This transcription
may be due to the fact that the vowel is nasalized following a nasal consonant, which
can be perceived as a lowering of the vowel.
Outsiders refer the Mono people as les Mono when speaking French or as ba-
Mono when speaking Lingala (Bantu C), the local trade language. In the latter case, the
speakers are simply employing the class 2 noun prefix ba-, which marks plural for
persons in Lingala (Guthrie & Carrington 1988: 14).
In many languages of the world, the term for the ethnic group is the same as the
word for ‘people’ or ‘human beings’ (Payne 1997: 13). In Mono however, this is not the
case. The word for ‘people’ in Mono is =K =K, =K =K whereas the word Mono is not related.
The term Mono is also a derogatory term used by some people in the Central
African Republic (CAR) to refer to the Congolese in general—e.g. Les Monos ne sont
que des voleurs. In fact, many people I have talked with in CAR appear to be ignorant of
the fact that Mono is a unique ethnic and linguistic group found in D. R. Congo.
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