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Liberia

Languages

Description

The official language of Liberia is English, in which many of the records from the period of British colonization have been kept. Liberia is a multilingual country where more than thirty languages are spoken. English is the official language and over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, representing the numerous ethnic groups who make up more than 95% of the population. None of the other language groups forms a distinctive majority. The native languages can be grouped in four language families: Mande, Kru, Mel, and the divergent language Gola.

Since Liberia’s official founding in 1824, English has maintained its status as the most prominent language in the country. English serves as the official Liberian language, and an estimated 3 million people speak the form of pidgin English known as Liberian Kreyol language or Liberian Pidgin English.

Another resource is *Languages of Liberia.

Pidgin Language
When talking about Liberian languages, we have to first understand the principle of Pidgin. A pidgin language is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups). Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people.

Liberian English

Liberian English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Liberia. There are five such varieties:
Standard Liberian English or Liberian Settler English (similar to American English)
Kru Pidgin English
Liberian Kreyol language (Vernacular Liberian English) from African American Vernacular English
Merico language (Americo-Liberian settlers from the United States of America)
Caribbean English (ex-Caribbean slaves settlers from the Caribbean islands)

Standard Liberian English or Liberian Settler English Standard Liberian English is the language of those people whose African American ancestors from the United States and the Caribbean islands immigrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century. This variety is a transplanted variety of African American Vernacular English from the southern part of the United States. It is most distinctive in isolated settlements such as Louisiana, Lexington, small communities upriver from Greenville in Sinoe County. According to 1993 statistics, approximately 69,000 people, or 2.5% of the population, spoke Standard Liberian English as a first language.
Liberian English is quite distinct from British or American usage. It has some archaic American expressions held over from the “pioneers” of the 1800s (like “vexed” for angry), but also has some British and other diverse expressions. Pronunciation tends to drop the final consonant of words ending in consonants, so that “Jared” sounds just like “Jerry”. “Th” is often pronounced like a “T”, and so “think” becomes “tink”, and “Thank You” becomes “tank you”. At the end of a word, “th” is often pronounced as an “F” (i.e., ‘truth’ becomes “truf”, and “Ruth” becomes “roof”). Word order is often quite different as well, so that question sentences are phrased differently than in standard English. For example, the question “When did you take the exam?” becomes “What time you took the exam?”.

Kru Pidgin English Kru Pidgin English is a language that is in terminal decline, and was spoken historically by Krumen. These were individuals, most often from the Klao Madingoes and Grebo ethnic groups, who worked as sailors on ships along the West African coast and also as migrant workers and domestics in such British colonies as the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria. The Krumen tradition dates back to the end of the eighteenth century. With the end of the British colonial presence in West Africa in the mid-twentieth century, however, the tradition came to an end, and with it the ongoing use of Kru Pidgin English.

Liberian Kreyol Liberian creole is the most common variety, developed from Liberian Interior Pidgin English. The Liberian version of West African Pidgin English has been significantly influenced by the Americo-Liberian and the Caribbean slaves Settler English. Its phonology owes much to Liberia's Kru languages. As such, rather than being a pidgin wholly distinct from English, it is a range of varieties that extend from the Caribbean English to the highly pidginized Americo-Liberian English and African American Vernacular English to one that shows many similarities to English as spoken elsewhere in West Africa.

Kreyol (Liberian Pidgin English, Vernacular Liberian English) is an English-based pidgin spoken in Liberia.[3] It was spoken by 1,500,000 people as a second language (1984 census) which is about 70% of the population in that time. Today the knowledge of some form of English is even more widespread. It is historically and linguistically related to Merico, a creole spoken in Liberia, but is grammatically distinct from it. There are regional dialects such as the Kru Pidgin English used by the Kru fishermen.

Merico language Merico or Americo-Liberian (or the informal colloquial name "American") is an English-based creole language spoken until recently in Liberia by Americo-Liberians, descendants of the Settlers, freed slaves and African Americans who emigrated from the Southern United States between 1819 and 1860. It is distinguished from Liberian Kreyol and from Kru, and may be connected to Gullah and Jamaican Creole. The original Settlers numbered 19,000 in 1860. By 1975 the language was partly decreolized, restricted to informal settings, and despised even by its speakers.

Caribbean English Caribbean English dialects of the English language are spoken in the Caribbean and Liberia and many other countries. Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken in the region, but they are not the same. In the Caribbean, there is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken. Scholars generally agree that although the dialects themselves vary significantly in each of these countries, they primarily have roots in British English and West African languages.

Mande

The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in Africa by the Mandé people. There are millions of speakers.

Kru

The Kru languages belong to the Niger–Congo language family and are spoken by the Kru people from the southeast of Liberia to the east of Côte d'Ivoire. The term "Kru" is of unknown origin. According to Westermann (1952) it was used by Europeans to denote a number of tribes speaking related dialects. Marchese (1989) notes the fact that many of these peoples were recruited as "crew" by European seafarers; "the homonymy with crew is obvious, and is at least one source of the confusion among Europeans that there was a Kru/crew tribe.

Andrew Dalby noted the historical importance of the Kru languages for their position at the crossroads of African-European interaction. He wrote that "Kru and associated languages were among the first to be encountered by European voyagers on what was then known as the Pepper Coast, a centre of the production and export of Guinea and melegueta pepper; a once staple African seaborne trade". The Kru languages are known for some of the most complex tone systems in Africa, rivaled perhaps only by the Omotic languages.

Mel

The Mel languages are a branch of Niger–Congo languages spoken in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The most populous is Temne, with about two million speakers; Kissi is next, with half a million.

Gola

Gola is an former Atlantic language of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is not closely related to other languages and appears to form its own branch of the Niger–Congo language family.

The Gola or Gula are a tribal people living in western/northwestern Liberia and Eastern Sierra Leone. The Gola language is isolated within the Niger–Congo language family; in 1991 it was spoken by 200,000 people. As of 2015, it is spoken by about 278,000 people.

The name Gola is a possible source for the name of the Gullah, a people of African origin living on the islands and coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, in the southeastern United States.

Additional Resources

• Liberia Working Group, and Jesuit Refugee Service. Liberia Working Group : a newsletter of current information. Roma, Italy: Jesuit Refugee Service, 1991. Available at: WorldCat.
• Williams, Levi C. History of the United Methodist Church in Liberia. Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2014. Available at: WorldCat.
• All Africa Lutheran Consultation on Christian Theology and Strategy for Mission. Preparatory documents for the All Africa Lutheran Consultation on Christian Theology and Strategy for Mission. Geneva: Lutheran World Federation, Dept. of Church Cooperation, 1980. Available at: WorldCat.
• Kemp, Thomas Jay. International vital records handbook. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2000. Available at: WorldCat.