English and Krio in Sierra Leone

English in Liberia consists of two distinct but overlapping varieties, Kolokwa and Liberian Settler English (LSE), with a third, Standard Liberian English, superposed upon them. Kolokwa (< colloquial ) is widely spoken. The Liberian descendant of a more general West African Pidgin English, it has been heavily influenced by LSE. The latter is the language of the descendants of the 16,000 African Americans who immigrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century. This study first presents a political history of English-lexifier varieties in Liberia. Drawing on data collected in the late 1980s, just prior to the outbreak of civil war, it then considers aspects first of LSE and then Kolokwa grammar. It examines LSE vis-à-vis African American English. It frames Kolokwa within the continuum model. A distinctive aspect of LSE and, especially, Kolokwa is the extent of coda consonant deletion; its impact on inflectional morphology is also addressed.