Belizean Creole

Belizean Creole(Belizean Creole:Belize Kriol,Kriol) is anEnglish-based creole languagespoken by theBelizean Creole people. It is closely related toMiskito Coastal Creole,San Andrés-Providencia Creole, andJamaican Patois.
Belizean Creole is acontact languagethat developed and grew between 1650 and 1930, initially as a result of theslave trade.Belizean Creole, like many Creole languages, first started as apidgin. It was a way for people of other backgrounds and languages, in this case slaves and Englishcoloniserswithin the logging industry, to communicate with each other. Over generations the language developed into acreole, being a language used as some people'smother tonguelanguage.
Belizean Creoles are people ofAfro-Europeanorigin.While it is difficult to estimate the exact number of Belizean Creole speakers, it is estimated that there are more than 70,000 inBelizewho speak the language. The 2010 Belize Census recorded that 25.9% of the people within Belize claimedCreole ethnicityand 44.6% claimed to speak Belizean Creole and put the number of speakers at over 130,000.It is estimated that there are as many as 85,000 Creoles that have migrated to the United States and may or may not still speak the language.
Belizean Creole is the first language of someGarifunas,Mestizos,Maya, and other ethnic groups.When the National Kriol Council began standardising theorthographyof the language, it decided to promote the spellingKriol, though they continue to use the spellingCreoleto refer to the people themselves.
Belizean Creole was developed as a lingua franca for those who were forced to work within the logging industry, and the language itself is linked to manyWest Africansubstrate languages.This is due to the fact that these slaves, more specifically identified as Belizean "Creoles", were taken fromJamaicaand brought to what was then known asBritish Honduras, which was the name of Belize when it was a Britishcrown colony, before gaining independence in September 1981.
The EuropeanBaymenfirst began to settle in the area of Belize City in the 1650s. Ken Deckerproposed that the creole spoken in Belize previous to 1786 was probably more like Jamaican Patois than the Belize Kriol of today. By theConvention of Londonof 1786, the British were supposed to cease all logging operations along the Caribbean coast of Central America, except in the Belize settlement. Many of the settlers from theMiskito Coastmoved to Belize, bringing theirMiskito Coast Creolewith them. The immigrants outnumbered the Baymen five to one.The local Kriol speech shifted to become something more like theMiskito Coast Creole.
Belize Kriol is derived mainly from English but is influenced by other languages brought into the country due to the slave trade. Itssubstrate languagesare the Native American languageMiskito,Spanish, and the variousWest AfricanandBantu languagesthat were brought into the country by slaves, which includeAkan,Efik,Ewe,Fula,Ga,Hausa,Igbo,Kikongo, andWolof.
There are numeroustheories as to how creole languages form. The most common and linguistically supported hypothesis indicates that creoles start out as apidginlanguages when there exists a need for some type of verbal communication between members of communities who do not share the same language. In the case of Belize Kriol, the pidgin would have developed as a result of West Africans being captured and taken to the Americas as slaves to work in the logging industries, where they would be forced to communicate with slave owners of European descent. For the first generation of people speaking the pidgin language, the pidgin is not fully developed and the grammar of the language is not as systematic as fully fledged languages.When the people speaking the pidgin language begin having children who grow up having no entirely developed language, they will take the partial grammar of the pidgin language their parents speak and use it as a sort of blueprint with which they are able to assign a systematic grammatical structure to the language.It is at this point that the language becomes a fully fledged language, as it becomes a mother tongue for generations of speakers, and the result is a creole language. Belize Kriol specifically developed as a result of many West African slaves being subjected to English-speaking owners; and as a result, these people were forced to create a pidgin language using English as a substrate language which was then formed into a creole by their children.
Englishis still considered the main official language of Belize, as it carries muchprestige, due to the fact it is amajority language. Road signs, official documents, and such are all written in English and the people of Belize are taught in English throughout their educational careers.Despite this, bilingualism andmultilingualismis common within Belize; and many people of allethnic backgroundsin Belize have adopted theminority languageKriol as theirnative language.Kriol is thelingua francaofBelizeand is the first language of someGarifunas,Mestizos,Maya, and other ethnic groups. It is asecond languagefor most others in the country.
Today, Belize Kriol is the first or second language of the majority of the country's inhabitants. Many of them speak standard English as well, and a rapid process ofdecreolizationis taking place. As a result, acreole continuumexists and speakers are able tocode-switchamong variousmesolectregisters, between the mostbasilectto theacrolectvarieties. The acrolect, much like the basilect, is rarely heard.
A 1987 travel guide in theChicago Tribunenewspaper reported that Belize Kriol is "a language that teases but just escapes the comprehension of a native speaker of English."
There are multiple regionalvernacularvarieties of Belizean Kriol; so, depending on where one is, the vernacular may be slightly different.A locale in the south of Belize, such asPunta Gorda, may have a slightly different Kriol vernacular than that one of the more northern areas, such asBelize City,which shows a vernacular closer to traditional Kriol, because of this, has gained more prestige than other vernaculars that stray farther away from the traditional vernacular.
English taught in the schools of Belize is based onBritish English, but it is often influenced by the teachers' Kriol speech. The 1999 Ministry of Education: School Effectiveness Report (p. 84) notes that "Creole is spoken as the first language in most homes." Belizean people speak English, Kriol, and often Spanish, while learning the English system of writing and reading in schools. It is a slightly different system of communication from the standard forms.In recent years there has been a movement to have Kriol used more within the Belizean education system and in government documentation. The Belize Kriol Project and the National Kriol Council of Belize are at the forefront of this movement, striving to bring more prestige and recognition to the language.
Current literary works using Kriol include an English and Kriol dictionary, and a translation of the Bible'sNew Testament. The dictionary brought attention to grammar, as well as the definition of common Kriol words, and the dictionary influenced the creation of a few other books that were solely based on Kriol grammar. There has also been a rise in poetry, fiction, and newspapers written in Kriol.
Kriol sharesphonologicalsimilarities with manyCaribbeanEnglish Creolesas well as with English, itssuperstrate language.Pidginlanguages have a general tendency to simplify the phonology of a language in order to ensure successful communication. Many creoles keep this tendency aftercreolization. Kriol is no exception to this.
Kriol uses a high number of nasalized vowels, palatalizes non-labial stops, and prenasalizes voiced stops. Consonant clusters are reduced at the end of words and many syllables are reduced to only aconsonantandvowel.
Some of these sounds only appear as allophones of phonemes.
Kriol uses three voiced plosives (/b//d//ɡ/) and three voiceless plosives (/p//t//k/). The voiceless stops can also beaspirated. However, aspiration is not a constant feature; therefore, the aspirated and non-aspirated forms areallophonic. The language employs three nasal consonants, (/m//n//ŋ/). It makes extensive use of fricatives, both unvoiced (/f//s//ʂ/) and voiced (/v//z//ʐ/. Its two liquids,/l/and/r/, are articulated alveo-palatally. The tongue is more lax here than in American English; its position is more similar to that of British English. Kriol's glides/w/,/j/, and/h/are used extensively. Glottal stops occur rarely and inconsistently. Kriol makes use of eleven vowels: ninemonophthongs, threediphthongs, andschwa[ə]. The most frequently occurring diphthong,/ai/, is used in all regional varieties. Both/au/and/oi/can occur, but they are new additions and are viewed as a sign of decreolization. The same is perceived of four of the less productive monophthongs.
Unlike most creoles, Kriol has a standardizedorthography.
Consonants: b, ch, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, sh, t, v, w, y, z, zh
The symbol choices for lengthened vowels come from ways those vowels are spelled in English, not theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.There is a dictionary for Kriol with over 5000 entries, including sample sentences for each word.
The present tense verb is not marked overtly in Kriol. It also does not indicatenumberorperson. As an unmarked verb, it can refer both to present and toperfective. The English past tense marker |d| at the end of the verbs indicatesacrolectalspeech. However, there is the possibility to mark thepastby putting the tense marker |mi| before the verb. Overt marking is rare, however, if the sentence includes a semantic temporal marker, such as "yestudeh" (yesterday) or "laas season" (last season).
The future tense is indicated by employing the preverbal markerwaora. Unlike the marking of past tense, this marking is not optional.
The preverbal markerdiexpresses the progressive aspect in both past and present tense. However, if the past is not marked overtly (lexically or by usingmi), an unambiguous understanding is only possible in context.diis always mandatory. In the past progressive, it is possible to achieve an unambiguous meaning by combiningmi+di+ verb.
Progressive action in the future can be expressed by usingbiin conjunction withwɑ. The correct combination here would bewɑ+bi+ verb.
Kriol does not have a habitual aspect in its own right. Other creoles have a general tendency to merge the habitual with the completive, the habitual with the progressive, or the habitual with the future. Kriol however, does not clearly merge it with anything. Thus, we can only assume that the habitual is expressed by context and not by morphological marking.
The completive aspect is expressed either without marking — that is, by context only — or by the use of a completive preverbal marker, such asdonorfiniʂ.
The conditional mood is expressed through the conditional verbswuda,mi-wa, andmia. The short version,da, is employed only in the present tense; the past tense requires the longer forms.
There is no overt lexical marking of active and passive in Kriol. It is only the emphasis of a sentence that can clarify the meaning, together with context. Emphasis can be strengthened by adding emphatic markers, or through repetition and redundancy.
There are four forms of "be" in Kriol:de, two uses ofdi, and the absence of a marker. Theequativeformdiis used as a copula (when the complement of the verb is either a noun or a noun phrase).deis the locative form that is used when the verb's complement is a prepositional phrase. No overt marking is used when the complement is an adjective.di, finally, is used in the progressive aspect.
The verb "to go" is irregular in Kriol, especially when set in the future progressive. It does not use the progressive markerdi, which is replaced by the morpheme andɡwein. The past tense is expressed similarly: instead of employingmi, the lexical itemɡaanis used.
A verb that is used extensively in each conversation ismek. It can be used as a modal in casual requests, in threats and intentional statements, and, of course, like the standard verb "to make".
Plurals are usually formed in Kriol by inserting the obligatory postnomial markerde. Variations of this marker aredenanddem. As decreolization progresses, the standard English plural ending-soccurs far more frequently. Sometimes, thedeis added to this form: for instance, in "shoes de" – shoes.
The absence of an appropriate plural marker occurs rarely.
Many Spanish, Maya, and Garifuna words refer to popular produce and food items:
The construction of sentences in Kriol is very similar to that in English. It uses a Subject-Verb-Object order (SVO). All declarative and most interrogative sentences follow this pattern, the interrogatives with a changed emphasis. The construction of the phrases follows Standard English in many ways.
Locatives are more frequently used in Kriol and much more productive than in Standard English. The general locative is expressed by the morphemeda("at" or "to"). It is possible to usetoorpɑn("on") instead. This is an indication of either emphasis or decreolization. Another morpheme which is more specific thandɑisinɑ("into"). It is used in contexts wheredɑis not strong enough.
Together with the verb "look", however,dɑis not used and considered as incorrect. To express "to look at", it is wrong to say "luk da". The correct version would be "luk pan".
In a noun phrase, Kriol can employ a structure of both noun and pronoun to create emphasis. The ordering then is noun + pronoun + verb (for instance, "mista filip hi noa di ansa" – Mr. Philip knows the answer).
Adjectives are employed predicatively and attributively. They can be intensified either by the postposed adverb modifierbad, by iteration, or by the use of the adverb modifieronli. Iteration is here the usual way. Comparatives and superlatives are constructed according to morphosyntactic rules. A comparative is made by adding-ato the stem ("taal" – "taala" – tall). The morphemedenis employed to form comparative statements: for instance, "hî tɑlɑ dan shee" – He is taller than she. Superlatives are created by adding-esto the stem. In all cases, the use of the definite articlediis obligatory. The copula is present if the superlative is used predicatively. An example could be: "She dah di taales" – She is the tallest.
Adverbs are used much as they are in Standard English. In almost all cases, they differ from adjectives not in form but in function. There are, however, a few exceptions, such as "properli" (properly), "errli" (early) or "po:li" (poorly). Adverbs can be intensified by reduplication.
Most Kriol conjunctions are very similar to English and are employed in the same way. The main difference is that Kriol allows double negation, so that some conjunctions are used differently. Some examples of conjunctions in Kriol are: "an" (and), "but" (but), "if" (if), "o:" (or) etc.
Questions usually take the same form in Kriol as they do in Standard English: question word + subject + verb. The "do-support" does not occur here either. The rising intonation at the end of the sentence may increase even more if no question word is used. Thus, most declarative sentences can become interrogative with the right intonation. "Which" has various translations in Kriol. If the speaker means "which", he useswitʂ, but he can also usewitʂwanfor "which one".
The tense/aspect system of Kriol is fundamentally unlike that of English. There are no morphologically marked past tense forms corresponding to English -ed -t. There are three preverbal particles: "mi" and "did" for the past, "di" as an "aspect marker", and a host of articles to indicate the future ("(w)a(n)", "gwein", "gouɲ"). These are not verbs, they are simply invariant particles that cannot stand alone, unlike the English "to be". Their function differs somewhat from English.
The progressive is marked by/di~de/. Past habitual is marked by/doz/or/juustu/. The present habitual aspect is unmarked but can be indicated by "always", "usually", etc. (i.e. is absent as a grammatical category).Mufwene (1984) and Gibson and Levy (1984) propose a past-only habitual category marked by/juustudoz/, as in/wehwijuustudozlivihnohazkoalazya/("where we used to live is not as cold as here").
For the present tense, an uninflected verb combining with an iterative adverb expresses the habitual, as in/tamaalweiznoaentaimkeititelpɑnhii/("Tom always knows when Katy tells/has told about him").
Like many other Caribbean Creoles,/fi/and/fu/have a number of functions, including:
The pronominal system of Standard English can distinguish person, number, gender and case. Some varieties of Kriol do not have a gender or case distinction, though most do; but Kriol does distinguish between the second person singular and plural (you).
The question words found in Kriol are:
Copula = helping-verb forms of “be”
Kriol: Ai da di teecha
English: I am the teacher.
Kriol: Yu da di teecha.
English: You are the teacher
Kriol: Ih da di teecha.
English: He/She is the teacher.
Kriol: Ah da-mi di teecha
English: I was the teacher
Kriol: Yu da-mi di teecha
English: You were the teacher.
Kriol: She/Ih da-mi di teecha.
English: She/He was the teacher.
Kriol: Da huu dat?
English: who is that?