Lwalu language

Lwalu
Lwalwa
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Kasai-Occidental province
Native speakers	(21,000 cited 1971)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Luban? (?) Lwalu
Dialects	Mbagani Lwalwa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lwa
Glottolog	lwal1238
Guthrie code	L.221[2]

Lwalu, also known as Lwalwa, is a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its classification is uncertain: Nurse (2003), following Ahmed (1995), assigns all of Guthrie's L.20 languages to Luban, including Lwalu.

Maho (2009) lists L.22 Mbagani (which has no ISO code) as closely related. Mbagani is also called Binji, and has been confused in the literature with the Binji language. Ethnologue labels the area Maho assigns to Mbagani as Songe.

References

1. Lwalu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online