title: Mba languages
text: # Mba languages
  
  The four Mba languages form a small family of Ubangian languages scattered across the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The languages are,
  
  * Ma (A-Ma-Lo)
  * Dongo
  * Mba
  * Ndunga
  
  The most populous is Mba itself, with about 40,000 speakers. Ma is the most divergent. The four Mba languages are not particularly closely related to each other and display considerable lexical diversity.
  
  ## Language contact
  
  The Mba languages have received significant influences from Bantu to the south, and from Zande languages to the north. For example, some Mba languages such as Ndunga have borrowed many noun prefixes from nearby Bantu languages (Pasch 1986, 1987, 1988).
  
  ## Internal classification
  
  Mba internal classification according to Pasch (1986):
  
  ### Mba
  
  * A-Ma-Lo
  * Ndunga-Mba-'Dongo
     * 'Dongo-ko
     * Ndunga-Mba
        * Ndunga-le
        * Mba-ne
  