Krio language 1

Krio language

KrioNative to Sierra Leone

Ethnicity Sierra Leone Creole, Aku

Native speakers 490,000 (1993)[1]

L2: 6,250,000 total (97% of Sierra Leone's population)

Language family English Creole

Atlantic

Krio

Dialects Aku

Language codes

ISO 639-3 kri

Linguasphere 52-ABB-bb

Sierra Leone Krio is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the West Africannation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population and unites the different ethnic groups inthe country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language ofcommunication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creolepeople or Krios, (a community of about 300,000 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, United States andUnited Kingdom), and is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to thecountry's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, while Krio, despite its common usethroughout the country, has no official status.The Krio language is an offshoot of the language brought by the Nova Scotian Settlers from North America,Maroons from Jamaica, and the numerous liberated African slaves who settled in Sierra Leone.All freed slavesthe Jamaican Maroons, African Americans, Nova Scotian Settlers, Sierra Leone LiberatedAfricansinfluenced Krio, but the Jamaican Maroons, Nova Scotian Settlers, Igbo and Yoruba Liberated Africanswere the most influential. The basic English structure of Krio is an offshoot of the English spoken by the NovaScotians and Maroons, while some of the African words in Krio come from the Yoruba and Igbo languages spokenby the liberated Yoruba and Igbo.Krio is distinct from Pidgin English as it is a language in its own right, with fixed grammatical structures and rules.Krio also draws extensively from other European languages, namely Portuguese and French, e.g. the Krio wordgentri/gentree, which means wealth or to acquire wealth, is derived from the Old French word "gentry," and the Krioword pickin, which means child, comes from the Portuguese word "pequeno."

Language originsThe early roots of Krio are believed to go back to the Atlantic slave trade era in the 17th and 18th centuries when an English-based "pidgin" language (West African Pidgin English, also called Guinea Coast Creole English) arose to facilitate the coastal trade between Europeans and Africans. This early pidgin later became the lingua franca of regional trade among West Africans themselves and likely spread up the river systems to the African interior. After the founding of Freetown, this preexisting pidgin was incorporated into the speech of the various groups of freed slaves landed in Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1855. The pidgin gradually evolved to become a stable language, the native language of descendants of the freed slaves (which are now a distinct ethnic and cultural group,

Krio language 2

the Creoles), and the lingua franca of Sierra Leone.[2]

Language usage

Krio usage in Sierra LeoneMost ethnic and cultural Creoles live in and around Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, and their communityaccounts for only about 3% or 5.4% of Sierra Leone's total population (Freetown is the province where the returnslaves from London and Nova Scotia settled).[3] However, because of their cultural influence in Sierra Leone especially during the period of colonial rule their language is used as the lingua franca among all the ethnicgroups in Sierra Leone. Many Mendes, Temnes, and Limbas grow up in the interior of the country speaking boththeir native languages and Krio. Children born in Freetown to parents who are not ethnic Creoles grow up speakingKrio and only Krio as their mother tongue language.

Krio speakers abroadThe Creole people acted as traders and missionaries in other parts of West Africa during the 19th century, and as aresult there are also Krio-speaking communities in The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.[4] As aresult of Sierra Leone Creole migratory patterns, in the Gambia the Creole or Aku community speak a dialect that isvery similar to Krio in Sierra Leone. A small number of liberated Africans returned to the land of their origins, suchas the Saros of Nigeria who not only took their Western names with them but also Krio word like sabi which wasinstalled into Nigerian Pidgin English.

Language revivalDuring the period of colonial rule, Sierra Leoneans (particularly among the upper class) were discouraged fromspeaking Krio; but after independence from the United Kingdom in 1961, writers and educators began promoting itsuse. In the 1960s, Thomas Decker translated some of Shakespeare's plays into Krio, and composed original poetry inthe language. In the 1980s the New Testament was translated into Krio.While English is Sierra Leone's official language, the Ministry of Education began using Krio as the medium ofinstruction in some primary schools in Freetown in the 1990s. Radio stations now broadcast a wide variety ofprograms in Krio. Sierra Leonean politicians also routinely give public speeches in the language.The New York City Public School system recently recognized Krio as a "home language" allowing children to berecognized as speaking Krio rather than other African languages.[citation needed]

ClassificationKrio is an English-based creole similar in many respects to Nigerian Pidgin English and Cameroonian PidginEnglish, but it has its own distinctive character. It is also similar to English-based creole languages spoken in theAmericas, especially the Gullah language, Jamaican Patois (Jamaican Creole), and Belizean Creole. It also sharessome linguistic similarities with non-English creoles, such as the French-based creole languages in the Caribbean.

GrammarAs in English, there is no grammatical gender in Krio. However, there are the hints of nominative, accusative andgenitive cases. Verbs do not conjugate according to person or number, but reflect their tense.

Krio language 3

InterrogativesThe following interrogatives can be used:

udat who

wetin what

ustem when

usay where

wetin mek why

In addition, like many other Creoles, a question can be asked simply by intonation. E.g. Yu de go?: 'Are you going'vs yu de go: 'you are going'

PronounsThere is no distinction between masculine and feminine in any person and unlike English there is a 2nd person pluralform.

ah, mi, mi I, me, my

yu, yu, yu you, you, your

i, im, in he, him, his, she, her, her

wi, wi, wi we, us, our

una, una, unu you, you, your (plural)

den, dem, den they, them, theirs

OrthographyKrio uses the Latin script as used in English but without Qq and Xx and with three additional letters from the Africanreference alphabet, (open E), (eng), and (open O). Three tones can be distinguished in Krio and aresometimes marked with grave (), acute (), and circumflex () accents over the vowels for low, high, and fallingtones respectively but these accents are not employed in normal usage. An alternative orthography with Latin lettersonly has been devised by Thomas Decker.The complete alphabet with digraphs follows with Decker's orthography in parentheses:

Krio letter or digraph Example word English meaning

A,a wata waterAw, aw naw (nau) nowAy, ay nayn (nain) that's himB, b bku (bohku) many, very much (< French beaucoup)Ch, ch cham chewD, d dia(dya) expensive (< dear)E, e let (leyt) late, p (ep) helpF, f fs (fohs) firstG, g got(goat) goat

Krio language 4

Gb, gb gbana/tranga difficult (from

Krio language 5

Usai yu kmt? - "Where do you come from?"A kmt Estinz. - "I come from Hastings."Us wok yu de du? - "What work do you do?"Mi na ticha. - "I am a teacher."Na us skul yu de tich? - "At what school do you teach?"I de tich na Prins v Welz. - "I teach at Prince of Wales."Mi gladi f mit yu. - "I am happy to meet you."Misf gladi f mit yu. - "I myself am happy to meet you."OK, a de go naw. - "OK, I am going now."rayt, wi go tok bak. - "Alright, we will talk again."

Krio word English meaning

Salone Sierra Leone

Kusheh Hello, Hi

Pady Friend

Titi Girl

Bobo Boy

Pickin Child

Wowoh Ugly

Plabah Conflict

bohku Many, Too much

Uman Woman

Leff Stop

Wetin What

Usay Where

Wetin Meck Why

Ustem When

Vex Angry

Dia Expensive

Wakka Walk

Cham Chew

Motocar Car

Sabi Know

Fett Fight

Wef Wife

Lef Stop

Mama Mother

Papa Father

Granny Grandmother

Grandpa Grandfather

Krio language 6

tif Steal

Jomp Jump

FilmsKrio is used (incorrectly) early in the 2006 film Blood Diamond between Danny Archer (played by LeonardoDiCaprio) and a character named Commander Zero.It can also be heard in the music video for "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", a song by American rapper Kanye West.In 2007, work was completed on an unsanctioned, dubbed Krio version of Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 film Jesus ofNazareth The dubs were recorded by a team of over 14 native Krio speakers, over a period of 9 months in the Lungiregion of Sierra Leone. The film aired on ABC-TV and a limited run of 300 copies were produced, which weremostly sold in Lungi and Freetown.[5]

References Ethnologue report for language code:kri [6]

[1] Krio (http:/ / archive. ethnologue. com/ 16/ show_language. asp?code=kri) at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)[2] Fourah Bay College, Freetown: Guide to Krio, (held at SOAS Univ. of London Library, 195?[3][3] Simon Schama: Rough Crossings, London, 2007[4][4] A. Wyse: Krios of Sierra Leone, London (1989)[5] video clip (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=mpgOsrKZN4c) of Krio-dubbed version of Zefirelli's Jesus of Nazareth.[6] http:/ / www. ethnologue. com/ show_language. asp?code=kri

External links http:/ / tukopamoja. spaces. live. com/ blog/ cns!8234535A7FECFC04!1173. entry Ethnologue report for Krio (http:/ / www. ethnologue. com/ show_language. asp?code=kri) Krio Research Centre (http:/ / www. krio. db. umu. se/ ) at Ume University, Sweden. Krio proverbs (http:/ / www. sierra-leone. org/ Proverbs. pdf) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Krio (http:/ / www. unhchr. ch/ udhr/ lang/ kri. htm) PanAfrican L10n page on Krio (& Pidgin) (http:/ / www. panafril10n. org/ wikidoc/ pmwiki. php/ PanAfrLoc/

KrioPidgin) Basic Krio and Temne Vocabulary (http:/ / www. visitsierraleone. org/ docs/ Basic-Krio-and-Temne-Vocabulary.

pdf) Yakpo, Kofi (2009) "A Grammar of Pichi", 692 pp. (http:/ / webdoc. ubn. ru. nl/ mono/ y/ yakpo_k/ gramofpi.

pdf) This link opens a pdf of a comprehensive linguistic description of Pichi (Fernando Po Creole English), alanguage closely related to Krio, by the linguist Kofi Yakpo (University of Nijmegen)

Article Sources and Contributors 7

Article Sources and ContributorsKrio language Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=556380409 Contributors: A12n, Adrianphull, Aeusoes1, AlexanderKaras, Aluspha, AndrejD, Angr, Arbeh,BartlebyScrivener, Bazonka, BilCat, Brianski, Bustrofedico, CJLL Wright, Can You Prove That You're Human, Cce, Cdc, Cdrk, Ceartas, Chichiwill, Chris the speller, Crocter, Ctpm, Drpickem,Dz.research, Embryomystic, Gamaliel, Garzo, HRH, Ish ishwar, Jerome Charles Potts, Jim1138, Jnrkmr, Jorge Stolfi, Jvhertum, Khazar, Kwamikagami, Malhonen, Marcika, Mark Dingemanse,Mayumashu, Mild Bill Hiccup, Mithridates, Mmortal03, Mogism, Munci, NickelShoe, Nyonneh35, Osomalo, OwenX, Qrc2006, Road2Peace, SCFilm29, Sadads, Sangkyul, Sango123,Shoeofdeath, Skater, Sorie, Squids and Chips, Steven J. Anderson, TenIslands, Tom Morris, Vertium, Waike, WereSpielChequers, WhisperToMe, Wikiaddict8962, Wikimandia, Yeniqua,Zyztem2000, 151 anonymous edits

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Krio languageLanguage originsLanguage usageKrio usage in Sierra LeoneKrio speakers abroadLanguage revival

ClassificationGrammarInterrogativesPronouns

OrthographyLanguage samplesFilms ReferencesExternal links

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