CHAPTER XXXII 



VOCABULARIES OF LIBERIAN AND OTHER WEST 

 AFRICAN LANGUAGES 



THE following vocabularies have been written down direct 

 from the natives by the author namely, Grebo, Kru, 

 Basa, De, Kpwesi, Buzi, Vai, and Mandma. The Kru 

 dialects of Sikon and Tadebu have been contributed respectively 

 by Mr. John Gow and Mr. Maitland Pye-Smith. The author 

 has composed the 'Bulom, Fula, and Wolof from the most 

 accurate sources obtainable, but almost entirely from books 

 published about the middle of the nineteenth century. This 

 was done purposely, so as to secure forms of these languages 

 relatively free from more recent mixture or corruption. 



The Fula dialect here given is derived mainly from 

 Reichardt, Earth, and Koelle, and is as nearly as possible that 

 which is spoken in Futa Jallo, the nearest Fula-speaking district 

 to the north-western corner of Liberia. In giving these examples 

 of Fula the author has striven after etymological points of 

 interest rather than the attempt to present the Fula words 

 as they are spoken with varying suffixes. In fact, the Fula 

 vocabulary is only given for purposes of comparison, and 

 therefore many of the suffixes have been removed from the 

 end of the word-root so as not to confuse the reader who 

 merely wishes to get at the essence of the word as apart from 

 removable particles, and thus compare it with the roots of other 

 African forms of speech. 



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