Krio language

Infobox Language
name=Krio
states=Sierra Leone
region=West Africa
speakers=ca. 4 million; ca. 500,000 native speakers
familycolor=Creole
fam1=Creole language
fam2=English Creole
fam3=Atlantic
fam4=Krio
nation="n/a"
iso2=kri
iso3=kri

Krio (also Creo or Creole) is the lingua franca language spoken throughout Sierra Leone. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people or Krios, (a community of about 300,000 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, United States and Britain). The Krio language is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population. The Krio language unites all the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and interaction with each other.

The Krio language is an offshoot of the language brought by the Nova Scotians from North America and the numerous West Indians who settled in Sierra Leone.The vocabulary of Krio is derived primarily from English, while its sound system, grammar and sentence structure are heavily influenced by African languages ( at least 12 African languages), including aspects from the : Yoruba language of Nigeria and Twi of Ghana. Krio's standard greeting "kushe", for instance, is derived from the Yoruba greeting "è kú işé" ("greetings on your work"), while the krio word "pan" meaning (on top of/doing something) descends directly from the Jamaican patois word "pon" meaning the same thing, the krio expresion "chaka-chaka" meaning (messy/untidy) also descends from Jamaican patois this is due to the fact that some of the freed slaves were from the West Indies particularly Jamaica (Jamaican Maroons).

All sets of freed slaves the Jamaican Maroons, African Americans, Nova Scotian settlers, Sierra Leone Liberated Africans all influenced Krio.

Krio is distinct from Pidgin English as it is an English-based creole languagebut more of 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., "tan", which means to behave in a way/behaviour, although debated is thought to have been derived from Spanish, and "plasas"," the Krio word for sauce, is also thought to have been derived from the Portuguese word "palavra(s)".

Language origins

The 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 spread up the river systems to the African interior. After the founding of Freetown, this preexisting pidgin was heavily influenced by 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, the Krios), and the national language of Sierra Leone [ Fourah Bay College, Freetown: Guide to Kreo, (held at SOAS Univ. of London Library, 195?] .

Language usage

Krio usage in Sierra Leone

Most ethnic and cultural Krios live in and around Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, and their community accounts for only about 3% or 5.4% of Sierra Leone's total population (Freetown is the province where the return slaves from London and Nova Scotia settled) [ Simon Schama: Rough Crossings, London, 2007] . 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 ethnic groups in Sierra Leone. Many Mendes, Temnes, and Limbas grow up in the interior of the country speaking both their native languages and Krio. Children born in Freetown to parents who are not ethnic Krios grow up speaking Krio and only Krio as their mother tongue but may not necessarily speak it as well as a Krio.

Krio speakers abroad

The Krio people acted as traders and missionaries in other parts of West Africa during the 19th century, and as a result there are also Krio-speaking communities in The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, [ A. Wyse: Kreos of Sierra Leone, London (1989)] . As a small number of Liberated Africans returned to the land of their origins such as the saros of Nigeria, "saros" not only took their anglo-British names with them but also krio words like "sabi" and "na" which were installed in to Nigerian Pidgin English.

Language revival

During the period of colonial rule, Sierra Leoneans were discouraged from speaking Krio; but after Independence from Great Britain in 1961, writers and educators began promoting its use. In the 1960s, Thomas Decker translated some of Shakespeare's plays into Krio, and composed original poetry in the 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 of instruction in some primary schools in Freetown in the 1990s. Radio stations now broadcast a wide variety of programs 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 be recognized as speaking Krio rather than other African languages.

Classification

Krio is an English-based creole similar in many respects to Nigerian Pidgin English and Cameroonian Pidgin English, but it has its own distinctive character. It is also similar to English-based creole languages spoken in the Americas, especially the Gullah language, Jamaican Creole or patois, and Belizean Creole. It also shares some linguistic similarities with non-English creoles, such as the French-based creole languages in the Caribbean.

Grammar

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

Interrogatives

The following interrogatives can be used:

Below are some sample sentences in Krio:

:"Kushe." - "Hello." :"Kushe-o." - "Hello.":"Wetin na yu nem?" - "What is your name?":"A nem Jemz." - "My name is James.":"Usai yu kɔmɔt?" - "Where do you come from?":"A kɔmɔt 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?":"A de tich na Prins ɔv Welz." - "I teach at Prince of Wales.":"A gladi fɔ mit yu." - "I am happy to meet you.":"Misɛf gladi fɔ mit yu." - "I myself am happy to meet you.":"OK, a de go naw." - "OK, I am going now.":"Ɔrayt, wi go si bak." - "Alright, we will see again."

Krio in films

Krio is used (incorrectly) early in the 2006 film Blood Diamond between Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) 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.

ee also

*Krio Dayak language
*Keriu language
*List of numbers in various languages
*Ian Hancock

References

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kri Ethnologue report for language code:kri]

External links

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