Alternate Names: Apagibete, Apagibeti, Apakabeti, Apakibeti, Pagabete
Dialects: Momveda, Mongbapele, Ndundusana (Egejo, Egezo, Egezon, Gezon). Lexical similarity: Ndundusana dialect 90% with Momveda and Mongbapele dialects; Momveda and Mongbapele has 80%, and Ndundusana dialect has 85% with Bwa ,. Dialects have 60%–75% with Kango ,, 60%–65% with Ngelima ,, 55%–60% with Lika ,, 46% with Komo ,, 40%–45% with Bali ,, 35%–40% with Ngombe , and Budza ,, 30% with Lingala ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 28,000 (2000 SIL). 6,000 Momveda, 4,500 Mongbapele.
Language Use: Vigorous in most families. 20% of Pagibete men marry speakers of other languages, and those women are pressured to learn it. Children of women who marry men from other languages speak it when visiting Pagibete villages. All domains. Positive attitudes. Also use French [fra], Lingala [lin], Ngombe [ngc], Northern Ngbandi [ngb]. About 30% intermarried with Ngombe [ngc] or Ngbandi [ngb] and understand or speak those languages. Used as L2 by Ngombe [ngc].
Language Development: 400 can read, 50 can write. About 5% have some secondary education with varying proficiency in French [fra]. Bible portions: 1996.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Other Comments: Christian, traditional religion.