Grebo languages
| Grebo | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: | Liberia, Ivory Coast |
| Linguistic classification: |
|
| Subdivisions: |
|
| Glottolog: | greb1257[1] |
Grebo is dialect cluster of the Kru languages, spoken by the Grebo people of Liberia and the Krumen of Ivory Coast.
Definition
Since the first group contacted by European explorers and Americo-Liberian colonists reaching the area of Cape Palmas were the Seaside Grebo, or Glebo,[2] their speech came to be known simply as Grebo. In the absence of other qualification, the term Grebo language will refer simply to the Glebo speech variety.
However, as will be seen from the discussion below, considerable ambiguity and imprecision continue to exist with respect to the use of the term Grebo; it is not always clear precisely which variety it is intended to denote, or, if it is being used as a group term, what is to be included in the group. The root of this imprecision grows from several factors:
- The incompleteness of the data; and
- Lack of rigor in the classification methodology; and
- The fact that the speech area involved is a language continuum.
Ethnologue classification
Ethnologue subdivides the Grebo branch of Western Kru into nine coded languages based on the needs of literacy, several consisting of divergent dialects with strong ethnocentric identities.
- Glio-Oubi
- Krumen (3 languages in Côte d'Ivoire)
- Grebo proper (5 languages)
Any of the twenty-five or more dialects in the group is likely to be called (a variety of) Grebo.
Multilingualism
A degree of bilingualism / bidialectalism is normal in such a context, but so is the commonly observed thrust for autonomy. Nevertheless, factors such as exogamy and the needs of commerce foster intercommunication strategies. This makes the degree of interintelligibility of the varieties seem less than if they were considered in isolation.
Diglossia (extended or not), often with Liberian (Pidgin) English provides an addition dimension to the complexity described above.
References
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Grebo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ Classified as a dialect of Southern Grebo by ISO 639-3.
Bibliography
- Innes, Gordon. 1966. An introduction to Grebo. London: Luzac.
- Innes, Gordon. 1967. A Grebo-English dictionary. (West African Language Monographs, 6) London: Cambridge University Press.
- Ingemann, Frances, and John Duitsman. "A Survey of Grebo Dialects in Liberia," Liberian Studies Journal, 7(2):121-131, 1976.
- Greenberg, Joseph H., The Languages of Africa. Indiana Univ. Press, 1966).
- Hasselbring, Sue and Eric Johnson. A sociolinguistic survey of the Grebo language area of Liberia. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-074, 2002. Online version: .
- Payne, John. 1867. A Dictionary of the Grebo Language. Philadelphia: King and Baird.