Something About Kriol  (Sep 2002)

Kriol is a patois, a combination of English and "pidgen", developed by the caribes over the past couple of centuries in the Carabbean.  It is not "Creole" which is a french-based patois spoken in Lousianna and East Texas.  It is spoken by the majority of Belizeans, who are almost always bilingual, and frequently trilinqual.  (Spanish -- or at least a Belizean variety -- is spoken by almost everyone in Belize North.)  Most of the Garifuna also speak their own language, and many older Mayans still speak their native tongue. .  

No plurals.  We had a sign on the teacher's lounge at CCC.  It said "NO STUDENT ALOWED"  After a while, somebody penciled in an S behind the STUDENT.  Somebody else took that sign down and put up another one that said "NO STUDENT ALOWED."  I didn't understand then, but I do now.  There are no plurals in Kriol.  "Woman" might mean "women".  "Man" might mean "men."   

Examples.  The Caribbean song -- "Man smart, woman smarter."

Money: "Two dollah"  "Five Dollah".  BTW, five dollah is a "red bwai"  (red boy) 

OTOH:  More than one shrimp is "shrimps". 

No Past Tense.  There is no past tense in Kriol.  This explains a lot of terms that I never understood before:

Fried Chicken is "Fry Chicken"

Ground Beef is "Grind Beef"

Stewed Beans is "Stew Beans"

A note about Kriol.  The current Governor General, Sir. Colville Young, is a scholar, with a Ph.D. in Musicology, and a number of published works about Kriol.  He believes that Kriol unites the Belizean people, and he would like to see it taught in school. 

Gently, gently.  If you want a gentle introduction to Kriol, you can subscribe to the bz-culture mailing list.  Belizean-Americans there interject a little Kriol into many of their notes.  Subscribe by sending the message "subscribe" to bz-culture-request@psg.com.

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