The Configuration of Liberia’s Englishes

Abstract

‘Liberian English,’ the non‐standard English‐lexifier speech of Liberia, can be divided into three varieties: Kru Pidgin English, spoken by Kru mariners and migrant workers; Settler English, spoken by descendants of nineteenth‐century African American immigrants to Liberia; and Vernacular Liberian English, spoken by the rest of Liberia’s English‐speaking population. An examination of 21 speakers of putatively basilectal and lower‐mesolectual Vernacular Liberian English (VLE) sets out the basis for the assertion that VLE comprises a single continuum, but the examination also introduces complications: five lects are proposed to cover the treatment of past‐tense aspect for these speakers, but the relationship of one lect to another is not always fluid; moreover, still with regard to tense‐aspect, two speakers of the 21 seem to fall outside the continuum entirely. Tense‐aspect in VLE is different from tense‐aspect in other Atlantic pidgins/creoles. Those varieties are aspect‐prominent, but VLE is highly tense‐sensitive, ordinarily merging tense with aspect. The cornerstone of VLE’s treatment of past‐tense aspect is the preverbal marker wa, used most basilectally as the primary marker of all types of past‐tense aspect (including statives) and used all the way along the continuum to mark statives.