Jabo language
| Jabo | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | [ ɟʱɑbo] |
| Native to | Liberia |
| Ethnicity | Jabo |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (included in grj) |
| Glottolog | jabo1238 |
The Jabo language is a Kru language spoken by the Jabo people of Liberia. They have also been known in the past as the Gweabo.
Jabo is part of the Grebo language continuum, encoded by Ethnologue more specifically as a dialect of the Southern Grebo language. However, Jabo satisfies the ISO 639-3 criteria for an individual language:
On the other hand, the commercial interaction of the Grebo peoples, together with exogamy, produces widespread multilingualism, magnifying the impression of homogeneity of the varieties of Grebo. Additionally, the goal of literacy is facilitated by a unificationalist approach to the varieties.
The Jabo language is known to scientific linguistics in some level of detail because it was analysed by the respected linguist Edward Sapir, and extensively transcribed by his doctoral student George Herzog. Both Sapir and Herzog relied upon the cooperation of Charles G. Blooah as their native informant. Most of the material was recorded on site in Liberia by Herzog, who was primarily a folklorist and ethnomusicologist. His interest in the Jabo language centered on its use in the oral literature of proverbs and sayings, and also in the Jabo drum-signalling system. This became focus of the corpus he collected. There is a natural overlap between these areas, since many of the drum signals are formulaic in nature and are based on elements of the oral literature.
This may also have entailed that much of the material recorded was originally uttered in a declamatory, rhetorical, or performance style. It has not been established the degree to which such style might depart from more informal styles of Jabo speech. However, this material is the basis of what is presented below.
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