-* The Languages of Liberia 



east. But the gb and kp combinations are the peculiar feature 

 in the speech of Central and Western Africa between the 

 Equator on the south and the 1 2th degree of north latitude 

 on the north.' 



The Mandingo ^ family of West African languages is 

 a very well-marked group, employing suffixes in its grammatical 

 changes. It seems to have its centre of origin about the 

 Upper Niger and the sources of the Senegal and Gambia. 

 Physically, the Mandingos vary somewhat in type, but appear 

 to be the result of an early infusion of northern Hamitico- 

 Caucasian blood into a pure Negro stock. Perhaps they were 

 created by the ancestors of the Fula mingling with the pure- 

 blooded Negroes of Western Africa. However that may be, 

 at one time they must have formed a tribe which had the 

 leisure and isolation necessary to the development of a very 

 well-marked form of speech, so far as grammatical structure 

 is concerned. They then prospered, increased in strength, and 

 early adopted the Muhammadan religion and Arab civilisation. 

 Overflowing their original bounds, which were perhaps those of 

 the highland country immediately between the Upper Senegal 

 and the Niger, they pushed their way south-eastwards to the 

 interior of what is now known' as the Ivory Coast, or on to 

 the highlands of Liberia, or they reached the sea coast through 

 (what is now) Sierra Leone. On their way south, by various 



' There may have been some trace of indeterminate guttural-labial in the 

 original Aryan language, afterwards to be represented by qit. Thus bos and 

 gall (cow), quinque and pcnte may have arisen from root-words of which the 

 initial consonant was lilce the African gb and kp. 



^ I am fully aware that this rendering of the name is not in strict accordance 

 with its pronunciation amongst the Mandingo people ; but the exact form of the 

 word seems to be somewhat in doubt, and as Mandingo has long been accepted 

 it is best to leave it undisturbed. The word seems to be composed of a root 

 Mandc or Mendi, and a suffix nka and nga. But as often as not it is pronounced 

 Mandina. 



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