Liberian English
Encyclopedia
Liberian English is a term used to refer to the varieties of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 spoken in the Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n country of Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

. There are four such varieties:
  • Standard Liberian English or Liberian Settler English;
  • Kru Pidgin English;
  • Liberian Kreyol language
    Liberian Kreyol language
    Kreyol is an English-based creole language spoken in Liberia. It is spoken by 1,500,000 people as a second language . It is historically and linguistically related to Merico, another creole spoken in Liberia, but is grammatically distinct from it...

     (Vernacular Liberian English);
  • Merico language
    Merico language
    Merico or Americo-Liberian is an English-based creole language spoken until recently in Liberia by Americo-Liberians, descendants of the Settlers, freed slaves and African-Americans who immigrated from the southern US between 1819 and 1860...

     (Americo-Liberian).

Normally, Liberians do not use these terms and instead refer to all such varieties simply as 'English.' Additionally, the term 'Liberian English' is sometimes used for all varieties except the standard.

Standard Liberian English

Standard Liberian English is the language of those people whose African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 ancestors immigrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century. This variety is a transplanted variety of African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...

. It is most distinctive in isolated settlements such as Louisiana, Lexington, and Bluntsville, small communities upriver from Greenville
Greenville, Liberia
Greenville, also known as Sinoe, is the capital of Sinoe County in southeastern Liberia and lies on a lagoon near the Sinoe River and the Atlantic Ocean...

 in Sinoe County
Sinoe County
Sinoe is one of Liberia's 15 counties and it has 17 districts. Greenville is the county's capital.As of the 2008 Census, it had a population of 104,932, making it one of the least populous counties in Liberia....

. According to 1993 statistics, approximately 69,000 people, or 2.5% of the population, spoke Standard Liberian English as a first language. The vowel system is more elaborate than in other West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n variants; Standard Liberian English distinguishes [i] from [ɪ], and [u] from [ʊ], and uses the diphthongs [aɪ], [aʊ], and [əɪ]. Vowels can be nasalised. The final vowel of happy is [ɛ]. It favours open syllables, usually omitting [t], [d], or a fricative. The interdental fricatives [θ, ð] appear as [t, d] initially, and as [f, v] finally. The glottal fricative [h] is preserved as is the sequence [hw]. Affricates have lost their stop component, thus [t͡ʃ] > [ʃ]. Between vowels, [t] may be flapped (>[ɾ]) as in North American English
North American English
North American English is the variety of the English language of North America, including that of the United States and Canada. Because of their shared histories and the similarities between the pronunciation, vocabulary and accent of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken languages...

. Liquids are lost at the end of words or before consonants, making Standard Liberian English a non-rhotic dialect.

Kru Pidgin English

Kru Pidgin English is a moribund variety that was spoken historically by 'Krumen'. These were individuals, most often from the Klao 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
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...

 (Ghana) and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. 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 language

Liberian Kreyol language
Liberian Kreyol language
Kreyol is an English-based creole language spoken in Liberia. It is spoken by 1,500,000 people as a second language . It is historically and linguistically related to Merico, another creole spoken in Liberia, but is grammatically distinct from it...

 (Vernacular Liberian English), the most common variety, developed from Liberian Interior Pidgin English, the Liberian version of West African Pidgin English
West African Pidgin English
West African Pidgin English, also called Guinea Coast Creole English, was the lingua franca, or language of commerce, spoken along the West African coast during the period of the Atlantic slave trade...

 though it has been significantly influenced by Liberian Settler English. Its phonology owes much to Liberia's Kru languages
Kru languages
-References:* Westerman, Diedrich Hermann Languages of West Africa . London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press.-External links:* at Ethnologue*...

. Vernacular Liberian English has been analyzed having a post-creole continuum. As such, rather than being a pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...

 wholly distinct from English, it is a range of varieties that extend from the highly pidginized to one that shows many similarities to English as spoken elsewhere in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

.
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