The following words give evidence of the playful nature of this language as it is shaped by many cultural influences. Read over the list and you will get a sense of the fun native speakers and foreigners enjoy in their use of the language.

Balabala – road, and you can feel the bumps and holes as you say it

Kpokoso – difficult, and it is, somewhat even for Congolese to pronounce

Poto Poto – Mud, as in wet earth used for making bricks for house construction

PuluPulu – diarrhea (sorry but I couldn’t resist this one)

Makelele – a dispute, hear them going back and forth?

Ingelesa – the Protestant Church, evidence of the largely English speaking nationalities of the early missionaries?

Semisi – shirt, or Smith since the English pronunciation is too difficult

Kokwei ndeke – literally “the bird is falling” but used as “falling in love”

Mondoki – rebel, this one carries a somber message as it means literally the one with a gun and is derived from ndoki or sorcery;

Mozwi – the one who receives literally, but used for a greedy person

PoussePousse – from the French “pousser”, to push, and used for the metal push carts hired for transporting loads in Congo’s cities.

Ngonga – hour, or gong if you prefer

Mpusu or Miao – they both mean cat and couldn’t you guess

Sukulu – school, more evidence of English speaking missionaries’ influence in educating many Congolese in times past.

Noki noki – real fast as opposed to noki which is just fast. Malembe malembe is real, real slow.

Kotambolatambola – the verb katambola means to walk so by repeating tambola the meaning changes to parading around; repetition as in the previous example intensifies the meaning. Could be used for any other verb you choose. Kolukaluka would mean to search everywhere as opposed to koluka which means a simple search.