Liberian Kreyol is an Atlantic English-lexicon creole language spoken in Liberia.Liberian English
Ethnologue Report by SIL Also known as Liberian kolokwa English, 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 kolokwa English'' used by the

Kru KRU was a Malaysian pop boy band formed in 1992. The group comprises three brothers, namely Datuk Norman Abdul Halim, Datuk Yusry Abdul Halim and Edry Abdul Halim'. Apart from revolutionising the Malaysian music scene with their blend of pop ...

fishermen. Liberian Kreyol language developed from ''Liberian Interior Pidgin English'', the Liberian version of West African vernacular English, though it has been significantly influenced by

Liberian Settler English Liberian English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Liberia. There are four such varieties: * Standard Liberian English , the Liberian variety of International English. It is the language taught in secondary and tertiary institutions ...

, itself based on

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

, particularly African-American Vernacular English and

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...

. Its phonology owes much to the indigenous Languages of Liberia. It has been analyzed having a

post-creole continuum A post-creole continuum (or simply creole continuum) is a dialect continuum of varieties of a creole language between those most and least similar to the superstrate language (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted d ...

. 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 West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

. Kreyol originated in Liberia among the Settlers, the free

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s from the Southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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. Joey Lee Dillard (1975), ''Perspectives on black English''. 391 pages. Walter de Gruyter. ,
Online version
accessed on 2009-08-10.

Grammatical features

Kreyol uses ''no'' for negation, ''bi'' (be) as the copula, ''fɔ'' for "to" in verbal infinitives.

References

Languages of Liberia English-based pidgins and creoles of Africa {{pidgincreole-lang-stub

Grammatical features

See also

References