LIBERIA

LIBERIA. A country in West Africa. Languages: English (official), and over 20 Niger–Congo languages, including Kru and Mande. The region was mapped by the Portuguese in the 15c and later visited by the Dutch, British, and other Europeans looking for gold, spices, and slaves. The idea of a homeland for freed slaves was conceived by a group of US philanthropical societies, including the American Colonization Society, influenced by the British creation of Freetown in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Monrovia, named after President Monroe, was founded in 1822. The governors of Liberia were white Americans until Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a black born in Virginia, took over in 1841. He declared the Free and Independent Republic of Liberia in 1847. Freed slaves migrated from the US until the end of the Civil War in 1865, and black Americans have settled in small numbers ever since.

Liberian English

Liberia is the only black African country in which English is a native language and the only country in Africa owing its English more to the US than the UK. The variety originated first in contacts from the 17c between native speakers of BrE and AmE and such coastal peoples as the Kru (among whom English PIDGINS developed), and then in the settlement of repatriated blacks. Their descendants, known formally as Americo-Liberians and colloquially as Mericos and Congos, established and maintained the prestige of English and dominated Liberian society politically and economically, especially through the True Whig Party, until the 1980 coup, which was led by Samuel Doe, a non-Merico army sergeant. Sierra Leone Krio has had some impact on usage, and frequent travel to, and close political relations with, the US have given standard AmE and American BLACK ENGLISH continuing prestige and influence. English in Liberia can be described in terms of an ACROLECT (high-prestige form), several BASILECTS (low-prestige forms), and emerging MESOLECTS (intermediate forms). Standard Liberian English is acquired through, and is a mark of, a high level of education, is heard on radio and television, and is the speech of those locally referred to as civilized. At the other end of the continuum, the basilects include Kru Pidgin English (the oldest pidgin), Settler English (formerly Merico), the everyday usage of the Americo-Liberian settlers (closely related to Southern US English before the Civil War), and Liberian Interior English, used mainly by speakers of Mande in the non-coastal areas. Soldier English is a pidgin used since the early 20c by and with non-English-speakers in the army, and Vernacular Liberian English includes urban and rural mesolects that compromise between the standard and non-standard varieties.

Features

The close historical link with AmE gives Liberian English its distinctiveness in relation to other West African varieties. Phonologically, the varieties range from a rhotic standard associated with AmE to non-rhotic pronunciations influenced by Kru and Mande. Grammatically, the mesolects and basilects have the following features: (1) Non-standard auxiliaries: He done come He has come; A was not know I did not know; habitual do as in I do see boy all de time I see the boy all the time; progressive de as in I de go I am going. (2) Uninflected verbs: You see da man? Did you see the man?; A know dem I knew them; Dey kesh grahapa They caught grasshoppers. The distinction between Settler English and Kru Pidgin can be seen in Settler Da pekin cryin, Kru Di pekin de krai (The child is crying), Settler I ain see him, Kru A neva siam. Distinctively Liberian words include: bugabug termite, dumboy boiled, pounded cassava, favour to resemble (compare AmE), fresh cold a runny nose, head cold, groundpea peanut, groundnut, jina spirits, kanki measurement for rice (around two cups), kwi a foreigner, outside child a child acknowledged although born outside marriage, sasse cheeky, smart, sassy. Traditionally, the standard has been emphasized and the other varieties generally disparaged, but since the coup the compromise forms have begun to gain recognition in such public contexts as the media and informal greetings, as expressions of political and social solidarity. The mesolect in Monrovia is the centre of innovation, and is spreading throughout the country. Typically, the same kind of thing can be said at several different ‘levels’: acrolect What you're saying, it's true, and I won't do it again; mesolect The thing you talking, that true, but I will not do it again; basilect The thing you telli me you no lie, but I can't do some again. See WEST AFRICAN ENGLISH, WEST AFRICAN PIDGIN ENGLISH.