Introduction

Teke-tyee is spoken by 14,400 people (World Factbook 2019) living in the Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Pool departments of the Republic of Congo.

 

The language is classified as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, B, Teke (B.73). The ISO code is [tyx]. Alternate names are Kwe, Tee, Tyee and West Teke.

 

The group is located in the Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Pool departments: between Kitembe and Makaka.

The language has 85% lexical similarity with Kukuya [kkw] and Eboo [ebo]. Some of the speakers also use Kituba [mkw].