Languages ​​of Liberia

Liberia is a multilingual country with over 30 indigenous languages spoken by local people in the country.

The languages ​​belong to the Niger-Congo language family and can be divided into 3 language groups: Manding , in the east and south Kru and the West Atlantic languages . Mande is spoken in the west and north of the country.

However, English is the official language, but in modified form as Liberian English with numerous Lehnworten permeated from West African languages. None of the African languages ​​has so far been able to assume a dominant position in the national framework of Liberia. In daily life the languages ​​preferred in the individual ethnic groups always predominate . Only 2.5 percent of the population who are descendants of the freed slaves who were resettled from the USA describe English as their mother tongue.

Fonts

Some of the Liberian peoples have become known for their widely acclaimed achievements in developing their own writing systems. All known examples of the Vai script were collected in the National Museum in Monrovia . The Vai script is a specialty among the scriptures, as it served the purpose of noting the African family and place names and other personal data in the church records. The writing was only mastered by a few ethnic group members who had to report such data to the authorities.

In the 20th century, among the Kpelle ( Kpelle script ), Bassa ( Bassa Vah ), Mende ( Mende script ) and Loma, other scripts were discovered that also represent phonetic scripts based on existing pictograms .

Language groups

English

• Liberian English
• Liberian Creole (Vernacular Liberian English)
• Merico (American-Liberian)

Limba Mel languages

• Kisi

Manding

• Bandi
• Dan
• Kpelle
• Loma
• Maninka
• man
• Manya
• Mende
• Vai

Krus languages

• Bassa
• Dewoin
• Gbii
• Glaro-Twabo
• Grebo
• Klao
• Krahn
• Kuwaa
• Sapo
• Tajuason

Atlantic languages

• Gola

Web links

• PanAfriL10n page about Liberia

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Siegmund Brauner et al .: Common and national languages ​​in Africa . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1985, Liberia, p. 120-122 .
2. ↑ Ethnologue page about the languages ​​of Liberia ( memento of the original from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Aménagement linguistique dans le monde - Liberia