106 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
the other tribes. They point out that the Mande-fu people, though speaking a 
Mandingo language, are in their outward appearance and in their civilization 
more closely allied to the Kru group than to the Mande-tan. 
The people speaking the Kru languages cover much of the southeastern half 
of Liberia, beginning on the west with the De dialect which is spoken on both 
sides of the lower St. Paul River. The De dialect links on with the Mamba, 
which is a dialect of the Bassa-Gibi language much spoken in south-central 
Liberia. Many different dialects of Kru are also spoken in the territory on the 
coast beginning with the Sangwin River and extending east to Garawé at which 
point Kru merges into Grebo. Johnston points out that although between the 
Sangwin River and the coast the speech of Sikon and Putu bears a considerable 
resemblance to the Kru language, it has a somewhat stronger affinity with 
Mandingo and Kpwesi. 
Padebu is the dialect of the interior of eastern Liberia beyond the Grebos. 
The Grebo group of dialects is relatively large, for its range extends over the 
west part of the French Ivory Coast, especially in the littoral region. It should 
rightly include Padebu and all the other dialects in the southeastern part of the 
country which use as a tribal designation the suffix bo, po, ete. 
All the Kru dialects are very nasal. They employ an aspirate before several 
consonants, rather clip the vowel sounds and show a preference for joining 
of a trilled vr with a dental, guttural or labial, without any intervening vowel. 
The roots of the Gola language which is comparatively restricted in range, 
show no distinct relationship to adjoining forms of African speech. It is no 
doubt an old descendant of the original mother tongue of West Africa, and ac- 
cording to Johnston bears very slight resemblance in its vocabulary to the Kru 
and Mandingo groups. There is in it an occasional suggestion of some remote 
affinity with Fula and even with Bulom. 
The Bulom language is represented in Liberia only by Kissi, which is 
spoken to the west of Boporo near the Sierra Leone border. Kissi is clearly 
related to the Bulom group of southeastern Sierra Leone in its word roots, but 
has developed a very different grammatical structure, for its nouns change from 
singular to plural by an alteration in the termination and not, like Bulom, by 
the application of a prefix. However, the Kissi language has not been thoroughly 
studied. Sibley and Westermann included the Gola and Kissi people in the 
same linguistic group, and state that perhaps they are both allied to the Temne 
and Bulom tribes of Sierra Leone. 
In the eventual development and civilization of Liberia, most of the dialects 
and languages will probably disappear. The Kru language is too difficult of 
pronunciation either for English-speaking people or for most of the other tribes 
of Liberia to master satisfactorily. Gola is spoken to a very limited extent. 
The Kpwesi language is spoken by the largest number of people, but it has a 
number of dialects and its use is not likely to become more general. 1 The writer 
1 Westermann (Preface to “‘The Kpelle Language in Liberia’ by Westermann and Melzian, in co- 
operation with the Firestone Plantations Company and the American Advisory Committee on Education 
in Liberia, Berlin, 1930) considers that Kpwesi (Kpelle) is one of the important vernacular languages 
of Liberia, — perhaps the most important. He admits that it is not easy to learn. 
