Liberian Kreyol language

Liberian Pidgin English
Region Liberia
Native speakers
 None[1]
1.5 million L2 speakers (1984 census)
Dialects
  • Kru Pidgin English
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lir
Glottolog libe1240[2]

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.[4]

Liberian Kreyol language developed from Liberian Interior Pidgin English, the Liberian version of West African Pidgin English though it has been significantly influenced by Liberian Settler English. Its phonology owes much to Liberia's Niger–Congo languages. It has been analyzed having a post-creole continuum. As such, rather than being a pidgin 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.

Kreyol originated in Liberia among the Settlers, the free English-speaking African Americans from the Southern United States who emigrated to Liberia between 1819 and 1860. It has since borrowed some words from French and from other West African languages.

Kreyol is spoken mostly as an intertribal lingua franca in the interior of Liberia.[4]

Grammatical features

Kreyol uses no for negation, bi as the copula, fɔ for "to" in verbal infinitives.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Liberian Pidgin English at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Liberian English". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Liberian English: Ethnologue Report by SIL
  4. 1 2 3 Joey Lee Dillard (1975), Perspectives on black English. 391 pages. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 90-279-7811-5, ISBN 978-90-279-7811-0. Online version accessed on 2009-08-10.


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