Liberian Kreyol (also known as Kolokwa or Liberian Kolokwa English) is an Atlantic English-based creole language spoken in

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

. It was spoken by 1,500,000 people as a second language at the 1984 census, which accounted for about 70% of the population at the time. It is historically and linguistically related to Merico, a creole spoken in Liberia, but it is grammatically distinct from it. There are regional dialects such as the ''Kru and Kpelleh kolokwa English'' used by the Kru fishermen. Liberian Kolokwa 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, itself based on

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

, particularly

African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voc ...

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, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...

. Its phonology owes much to the indigenous Languages of Liberia. It has been analyzed having a post-creole continuum. As such, rather than being a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

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, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. Kolokwa originated in Liberia among the

Settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

, the free English-speaking

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s from the Southern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

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 Lingua francas {{pidgincreole-lang-stub

Grammatical features

See also

References