Grebo language

Grebo
Native to	Liberia
Native speakers	390,000 (2001)[1] possibly a few Southern Grebo in Ivory Coast, plus refugees
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Kru Western Kru Grebo languages Grebo
Language codes
ISO 639-2	grb
ISO 639-3	grb – inclusive code Individual codes: grj – Southern (incl. Jabo) grv – Central gbo – Northern gec – Gboloo gry – Barclayville
Glottolog	greb1256[2]

Grebo is a Kru language of Liberia. All of the Grebo languages commonly go by the term Grebo, though in Ivory Coast Krumen is usual. Grebo country is in the extreme south-west of Liberia on the coast and inland, between the rivers Cavally and Cess.^[3]

As in 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 "you" singular.^[4]

References

1. Barclayville Grebo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Grebo-Liberian". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Gordon Innes, A Grebo - English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 1967
4. Gordon Innes, as above. The 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

External links

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