The Mangbutu–Lese languages of the Central Sudanic language family, also known as Mangbutu–Efe or simply Mangbutu (e.g. Starostin 2016), are a cluster of closely related languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Moru–Madi languages are spoken to the northeast, and Mangbetu languages are spoken to the west.Bokula, Moiso & Agozia-Kario Irumu. 1994. Bibliographie et matériaux lexicaux des langues Moru-Mangbetu (Soudan-Central, Zaïre). Annales Aequatoria 10: 203‒245.

The languages are: Mangbutu, Mvuba, Ndo, Mamvu, Lese, Bendi. Efe (the language of the Efe Pygmies) is often counted as another, but appears to be a dialect of Lese. Ndo (Membitu) is the most populous language and is spoken by a caste of blacksmiths.

See also Central Sudanic word lists (Wiktionary)

Footnotes

References Nilo-Saharan list (Blench 2000)