Vili language

Not to be confused with Vili (Ibhili).

Vili (Civili) is one of the Zone H Bantu languages, grouped with the Kongo clade.

Vili
Civili[1]
Native to	Republic of the Congo, Gabon
Native speakers	(100,000 cited 2000)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone H) Kongo (Kikongo, H.10) Vili
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vif
Glottolog	vili1238
Guthrie code	H.12[3]

The language has a few thousand native speakers spread along the coast between southern Gabon and Cabinda, most of them in the Republic of the Congo's Kouilou, Pointe-Noire and Niari departments. The Vili people (singular Muvili, plural Bavili) were the population of the 17th- to 18th-century Kingdom of Loango in the same region.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt	ᶮt͡ʃ	ᵑk
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮd͡ʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
	voiced	v	z
	prenasal vl.	ᶬf	ⁿs
	prenasal vd.	ᶬv	ⁿz
Rhotic			r
Approximant		w	l	j

Consonants may also be labialized [ʷ] when preceding /w/.^[4][5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Close-mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː