Languages
The complete dominance of the French colonists has resulted in a completely French educational system both in instruction and in structure. However, a study carried out in 2006, showed that only 30% of the population actually speaks the language.
More than 50% of the Congolese that live in the south of the country along the railway linking Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, speak Kituba or Munukutuba. It is a creole adaptation of Kikongo, one of the Bantu languages that are prevalent in the western side of Central Africa. The idiom is comprehensible by everyone speaking any dialect of Kikongo.
On the other hand, the residents of the north and the north east parts of the country, including President Sassou himself, speak the river language or Lingala or Ngala. It is the idiom that has shown the greatest growth in recent years and is a direct derivative of Bantu spoken by about 45 million people in all of Central Africa.
All three of the above are considered as the national languages of the Republic of the Congo, taught at schools. A third language is spoken in the department of Pool and to the south of the Capital Brazzaville and is called Ladi. It is the language spoken by the specific ethnicity of the Lari (otherwise known as Laari, Baladi or Laadi).
Similar to the Ladi, the Batekes (about 17% of the population) speak a language that belongs to a different group of the Bantu derivatives (Teke languages) and is called Batak or Bataknese. It can be heard in the departments of Plateux, Cuvette-Ouest, Niari, Bouenza and a part of Pool.
At this time, it would be prudent to make a reference to the root language of almost all the idioms and dialects spoken by about 350 million people and are mutually understandable. The group consists of 260 outer languages and hundreds of dialects all coming down from a common ancestor under the name Proto Bantu. The general scientific consensus is that it was originally spoken in the area of what is now Cameroon and begun spreading between 2.5 and 3 thousand years ago through immigration and expansion.