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Liberian pidgin english interpreter
Liberian pidgin english interpreter













liberian pidgin english interpreter

Gold in his “Some Terms from Liberian Speech” in 1979 makes the remark that in order to understand Liberian English there is no need for learning new words but rather to get accustomed to how English words are pronounced in a Liberian accent. As the superstrate, English contributes most vocabulary but the words are pronounced according to the pronunciation features of West African languages. The vocabulary of LPE is mostly English by a very high percentage of ninety per cent. These men travelled along the coast spreading this way the language and enriching its vocabulary with both American and European influences (Singler 1981: 19). The language became widespread throughout Liberia by sailors or “Krumen” working on American and European ships that had taken them on as their crew. Another, not lesser factor to the how the language turned out are the Liberian Languages which contributed the sounds and the pronunciation of words but also phrases that constitute idioms in Liberian and are used by direct translation in English.

liberian pidgin english interpreter

By using Standard American English they made it a prestigious variety which had much influence on the Pidgin language that was being created (Singler 1981: 15). When black immigrants came to Liberia from America occupied many of the places of the Liberian government and they belonged to the high society of Liberia. Despite this fact, there are some Portuguese words which are used in the language even today (Singler 1981: 13). At a later stage however the English trade became far more spread in the area and the English language influenced LPE in a greater degree. Liberian Pidgin English was primarily influenced from the Portuguese which were the first to arrive to West Africa to trade. Not less important is the influence of the native Liberian characteristics of the Liberian languages which also contributed to the creation of LPE (Singler 1981: 13). Liberian Pidgin English was influenced both by the variety of traders of different nationalities, but also in a large extend by immigrants who were considered to be the elite people of Liberia. It is a rich language which presents great diversity due to the many different factors involved in its creation. In 1984 it had at an approximation, one and a half million users. It was first created for the sole purpose of facilitating trade between Europeans and Americans with the indigenous but it is now used throughout Liberia for communication among people that don’t share the same native language. Liberian Pidgin English is one of the pidgin languages created in West Africa in the region of Liberia. Polysemy is also one of their prominent characteristics. This way Pidgins present a limited vocabulary and in most cases do not use grammatical markers. A Pidgin language is simpler than other languages since it is created to serve a specific purpose and thus has the limited vocabulary and grammar functions that are necessary for that purpose. However grammar is more influenced by the vernacular language, the substrate (Holmes & Wilson 2017: 92). It has been found that if a prestigious language is involved then this language is the superstrate, that is, the one which contributes most of the vocabulary. Because Pidgin Languages are created as mixtures of different languages they feature characteristics from every language involved in their creation but it’s not rare for some original characteristics to be created as well through its use. Another theory is that the word Pidgin was created from two distinct Chinese characters “pei” and “tsin” which have the meaning of paying money (Holmes & Wilson 2017: 90). The term may originated from the word “business” as pronounced in the Chinese-English Pidgin or the word “pidjom” that also means trade in Hebrew (Holmes & Wilson 2017: 90).

liberian pidgin english interpreter liberian pidgin english interpreter

The origins of the term Pidgin are not definite but various theories about its coinage exist. If it acquires native speakers by children growing up having the specific language as their native language, then it is categorized as a Creole language (Rickford 2003: 224). A Pidgin language is one that has no native speakers. Most often a Pidgin facilitates people that want to trade or serves as a way of understanding between settlers and natives in cases of colonization. Pidgin languages are often created to serve one specific purpose. Investigating the case of a Pidgin: Liberian Pidgin EnglishĪ Pidgin language is a language created from the need of people with different native languages to communicate.















Liberian pidgin english interpreter