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

Vili
Civili[1]
Native toRepublic of the Congo, Gabon
Native speakers
100,000 (2000)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3vif
Glottologvili1238
H.12[3]

The language has a few thousand native speakers in 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.

References

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  1. ^ Civili is pronounced Tchivili and can also be pronounced Tshivili.
  2. ^ Vili at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
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