Grebo language

Grebo
Grebo
Kréébo (Grebo)
Native to	Liberia
Native speakers	390,000 (2001); possibly a few Southern Grebo in Ivory Coast, plus refugees
Language family	Niger–Congo? Kru Western Kru Grebo languages Grebo; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-2	grb
ISO 639-3	grb – inclusive code; Individual codes:; grj – Southern (including Jabo); grv – Central; gbo – Northern; gec – Gboloo; gry – Barclayville; oub – Glio-Ubi
Glottolog	greb1256

Grebo is a Kru language of Liberia. All of the Grebo languages are referred to as Grebo, though in Ivory Coast, Krumen is the usual name. The Grebo people live in the extreme south-west of Liberia, both on the coast and inland, between the rivers Cavally and Cess.^[2]

As in the other Kru languages, tone is extremely important. For instance, né with a high (or high-mid) tone is the first-person pronoun "I", while nè with a low tone is the singular form of "you".^[3]

Phonology

The following discussion covers the Northern dialect of Grebo.

Consonants

Northern Grebo Phonology^[4]
		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar/Palatal	Labial-velar	Velar
		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar/Palatal	Labial-velar	plain	labialized
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋmˤ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		kpˤ	k	kʷ
Plosive	voiced	b	d		gbˤ	ɡ
Affricate	voiceless			tʃ
Affricate	voiced		dz
Fricative		f	s
Approximant			l	j			w

Vowels

Northern Grebo vowels^[4]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		u ũ
Near-close/Close-mid	ɪ ɪ̃		o õ
Open-mid	ɛ ɛ̃		ɔ ɔ̃
Open		a

References

^ Barclayville Grebo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Gordon Innes, A Grebo - English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 1967
^ Gordon Innes, as above. A dictionary was compiled from previous dictionaries and the speech of Assistant 1955-1957 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Mr. J.Y.Dennis
^ ^a ^b "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2024-09-07.

External links

John Payne (Bp.) (1860). A dictionary of the Grebo language. E.O. Jenkins. Retrieved 25 August 2012.

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[1] Barclayville Grebo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Gordon Innes, A Grebo - English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 1967

[3] Gordon Innes, as above. A dictionary was compiled from previous dictionaries and the speech of Assistant 1955-1957 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Mr. J.Y.Dennis

[:0-4] "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2024-09-07.

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