VI 
LANGUAGES 
Our knowledge of the languages of the tribes of Liberia we owe principally to 
Johnston and Westermann. These tongues fall into five groups: — Mandingo, 
Kpwesi, Kru, Gora, and Bulom. The Vai, Mendi, and Kono languages resemble 
the Mandingo, but the languages of the majority of the tribes are more like the 
Kpwesi and Kru rather than the Mandingo. Like the languages of other West 
African groups, the Mandingo language resembles Bantu in grammatical struc- 
ture except in the use of suffixes instead of prefixes. In Mandingo, as in all other 
forms of purely negro speech, there is no distinction of gender. Its phonology 
is harmonious and it is relatively easy for those speaking English to pronounce. 
It also resembles languages of the Bantu group in its frequent use of vowels 
and the desire as far as possible to place a vowel between each consonant, except 
where semi-vowels like the nasal m, n, and r are used. As in Bantu, no word 
can end with a consonant. Johnston points out that for the word ‘“‘ten”’ half 
the Mandingo dialects have tamu, tam, tan, and that the other half have fu, pu 
or some variant of it. Sibley and Westermann ! accept the classification of the 
Mandingo tongues on this basis and separate them into two main divisions: — 
the Mande-tan and Mande-fu. The Mande-tan are the languages of the people 
who are generally referred to as Mandingoes, and who occupy particularly the 
country beyond the forest belt, except for the Vais who have advanced to the 
coast. According to Sibley and Westermann two tribes speaking Mande-tan 
languages are represented in Liberia, — the Malinke in the northwest, and their 
neighbors the Vai who inhabit the west coast region especially between Cape 
Mount and Monrovia. The Kono, who live further north and who are separated 
from the Vai proper by a group of Mendes, speak a Vai dialect and are near 
relatives of that tribe. 
The Vai language has a great similarity to Mandingo and like it is a har- 
monious tongue, relatively easy to pronounce. It has a grammar that is said by 
Johnston to be reasonable and far from difficult. The rather cumbersome 
system of writing used by the Vais has already been referred to. 
The Kpwesi dialects show a decided affinity with the Mandingo group, and 
at the same time bear in some of their roots some slight resemblances to Bulom. 
Johnston says that these resemblances, if they are real, are undoubtedly due to 
derivation of the Kpwesi from a very ancient West African mother speech. 
Sibley and Westermann list the tribes speaking Mande-fu languages in Liberia 
as the Kpwesi, Loma, Weima, Gbandi, Gbundi, Mano, and Gio. These tribes 
all speak dialects of one common language which Sibley and Westermann believe 
could become the predominant one of the country of Liberia, and that books 
written in the main Kpwesi dialect could soon be understood by all members of 
1 Sibley and Westermann: “Liberia, Old and New” (1928), p. 52. 
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