LANGUAGES 107 
believes the Mandingo or Vai language would probably supersede it to some 
extent should no further civilization of the country occur, and none of the other 
languages have been reduced to writing by the natives themselves. Indeed it has 
been suggested that Vai will probably become the dominant native speech, not 
only because it is similar to Mandingo and is much more harmonious and much 
easier to pronounce than the other dialects of the Liberian tribes, but also because 
the grammar is said to be reasonable and not difficult. However, since so many 
dialects are spoken in the interior of the country, it seems obvious that English 
will in time become the general language of the country. As Johnston points 
out, the negro can often acquire languages totally foreign to his own with far more 
facility than the ordinary European. Many of the inhabitants of Liberia already 
speak English and one or two of the dialects of the interior tribes. Our servants 
and interpreters sometimes spoke three native dialects in addition to English. 
English, of course, is the official language of the country, and, as Sibley ' points 
out, it seems to be the desire of the native chiefs as well as of the government, that 
it should become the general language. It should really be made the one lan- 
guage of all the schools which are started not only on the coast but in the interior. 
The wisdom of such a course has been thoroughly demonstrated in the Philip- 
pine Islands where the people formerly spoke many dialects in different parts of 
the country. 
1 Sibley: Loc. cit., p. 294. 
