home definitions other descriptions classroom tips links references	Krio (written by Malcolm Awadajin Finney)   This page includes information on: background (history, attitudes and current use) sounds vocabulary some grammatical features references
BACKGROUND The History of Krio Krio is an English-based creole spoken mainly in Sierra Leone in West Africa. The name is proposed to be derived from Yoruba a kiri yo (we go-about-aimlessly full/satisfied) meaning "Those who habitually go about paying visits after church service", as the Krios were wont to do (Fyle & Jones 1980). Circumstances leading to the emergence of Krio are highly debatable. One view argues that Krio emerged from varieties of creoles used by settlers -- mostly freed slaves primarily from four areas -- who were resettled in the Sierra Leone peninsula, including Freetown, between 1787 and 1850 (Huber 1999, 2000). These 4 groups and their dates of arrival are identified as follows (Huber 1999, 2000): The Black Poor: The Original Settlers (Black Poor) from England, numbering about 328 settlers, arrived from England in 1787. There is no evidence of any significant contribution of the Black Poor to the development of present day Krio. The Nova Scotians: Slaves in America were promised freedom and much better living conditions in return for support for the British during the American war. After the war, about 3,000 slaves were relocated, in 1783, in Nova Scotia, Canada (a British colony), where they continued to endure economic hardship and epidemics. In response to their protests, the British decided to relocate them in a new colony in West Africa -- the Sierra Leone peninsula, where most of the slaves were originally from, in 1787. Most of the first arrivals didn't survive the hostility of the native community, primarily the Mendes. In 1792, close to 2000 freed slaves were shipped to Freetown from Nova Scotia. The Gullahs: Slaves from West Africa and their descendants worked in plantations in the American South East, between North Carolina and Florida, and developed a pidgin, which later became Gullah creole -- a mixture of English and West African languages. Though, vocabulary was derived primarily from English, its structure and pronunciation (including intonation), as well as idiomatic expressions, proposed to be were heavily influenced by those of the West African languages that the slaves used as a primary language. Gullah, still used in the American South, bears some similarities with Krio. The Maroons from Jamaica: About 556 Jamaican Maroons (escaped slaves), deported to Nova Scotia in 1796 after an unsuccessful revolt, were transferred to the Sierra Leone peninsula in 1800. Creoles from the West Indies, particularly the variety brought by the Jamaican Maroon settlers, are proposed by Huber to have had significant input into what has now evolved into present day Krio. There are lots of similarities between Jamaican creole and Krio. Another major group to be considered in the development of Krio is that of the Liberated Africans. After the British declared slavery illegal for their Subjects, their fleet patrolled the West African coast, intercepted slave ships and recaptured slaves, and released and resettled them in the Sierra Leone peninsula as the Liberated Africans (or Recaptives). These were by far the largest group and were resettled in the Sierra Leone peninsula over a period that stretch from 1808 (when Sierra Leone was declared a crown colony) to 1863. Huber estimates the number of Liberated Africans resettled in the Sierra Leone peninsula during this period at about 60,000, though only about 37,000 were alive in 1840. In 1860, the Liberated Africans and their descendants totaled 38, 375. The Liberated Africans' influence on the linguistic evolution of Krio is a debated issue. Huber (2000: 278) acknowledges their possible influence when he states that "the Recaptives could very well have dominated the linguistic scene in 19th century Sierra Leone by swamping any other variety that may have developed in the years prior to their arrival." The Liberated Africans comprised mainly of speakers of West African Kwa languages, including Yoruba (the most prominent), Igbos, Akan, and Gbe. According to Huber, the Liberated Africans were resettled in villages outside of Freetown in the Sierra Leone peninsula, and there was little interaction between them and the rest of the settlers in Freetown between 1812 and 1830, as the communities were segregated. There was increased contact, however, in the 1830s as the Liberated Africans were increasingly employed as domestic servants in Freetown. They originally spoke African languages only, but with improved economic status and more interaction with the Maroons and Nova Scotians, a new variety of creole emerged that was described in transcripts written by British colonists as a 'barbarous', 'defective', 'gibberish' and 'jargon' form of English (Huber 2000). This variety incorporated features of the creoles used by the Maroons and Nova Scotians, and it is reasonable to assume that the cross-linguistic influence was bi-directional: that is, the creoles used in Freetown were influenced by the variety developed by the Liberated Africans. The language and traditions of settlers of Yoruba origins have had a strong influence on the language, social life and customs of Krio speakers in Freetown. The influence of the languages (including Yoruba) of the Liberated Africans on the grammatical development of Krio should therefore not be underestimated and should be considered at least a contributing factor in the development of the grammar of Krio. A contrary view of the origin of Krio Hancock (1986, 1987) maintains that the original "core" creole emerged along the Upper Guinea Coast of West Africa in the 1600s, long before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. There is evidence of British settlement on the Upper Guinea Coast and written reports of interaction, including intermarriages, between Europeans and Africans during this period. Products of the intermarriages -- referred to as Mulattos -- became the first creole speakers. Creoles in the Americas partly originated from this original creole (Guinea Coast Creole English (GCCE)), which was transmitted to the Americas by slaves transported by English and Dutch traders. Hancock suggests that the grammar of GCCE continued to be influenced by the properties of West African languages as a result of its extensive use by second language speakers in the region. According to Hancock, present day Krio is an offshoot of GCCE. Eyewitness recorded transcripts of GCCE in the 17th and 18th centuries illustrate similar grammatical features and lexical items between modern Krio and GCCE. The presence of these features and items in present day Krio, Hancock maintains, is evidence that the emergence of Krio pre-dates the resettlement of freed slaves in Sierra Leone. Attitudes and Current Use of Krio Present day Krio now exists in a variety of forms. There is an ambivalent attitude towards Krio by native Krio speakers: It is a symbol of identity (not only for native Krios but also for Sierra Leoneans in general. However, it is also perceived as a distortion (an inferior form) of English and hence has a negative influence on the development of English. English, as the official language and medium of instruction in academic institutions, continues to hold the status as the language of prestige, sometimes resulting in the use of the Acrolect variety of Krio (the variety closest to English) as a symbol of status or education. This has thus resulted in the co-existence of parallel forms (broad vs. proper Krio) used to symbolize class, education, and upbringing. (In the following, the symbol E is used for the sound of 'e' in 'bet' and O is used for the sound of 'aw' in ' awful'.) For example: winda vs.windo ('window'); bred vs. brEd ('bread'); rEs vs. rays ('rice'); was an besin (literally, 'wash-hand basin') vs. sink ('sink'); bokit vs. bOkEt ('bucket'); kaka vs. stul ('feces'). This had its origin from colonial times when the British assumed that Krio was a distortion of English and continued to stress importance of English over local languages, a trend that successful Krio families followed. Krio linguists are now trying to reverse the trend by encouraging the use of Mesolect and Basilect varieties, as a means of preserving Krio and slowing down, if not halting, the continued influence of English. More recently, there has been influence from non-native Krio speakers as a result of its extensive use as a second language. As a result, other varieties of Krio are emerging resulting in coexistence of parallel forms. For example: wetin yu bring fO mi? (Native speech) versus wetin yu sEn fO mi? (Non-native) 'What did you bring (home) for me?'   dEn di bil os. (Native) (literally: they progressive build house) versus dEn de pan bil os. (Non-Native) (lit.: they prog in-the-process-of build house) 'They are building a house.' Though some native Krio speakers, accepting change as inevitable, incorporate non-native forms into their speech, others would like to maintain the 'purity' of the language and have maintained use of the original native forms. The official attitude to Krio has also been ambivalent. It is one of the languages recognized in broadcasting, but its use by school children could result in strong disciplinary action. Since 1977, there has been contemplation by different political regimes of using an indigenous language or indigenous languages in formal education. Pilot studies included Mende and Temne (comprising about 50% of the population) and Limba (the next most populous). Krio was not considered because of its small base of native speakers (about 10% or less of the population). There have been recent talks of possibly using Krio in some official capacity because of its widespread use as lingua franca, but not much progress has been made. Current negative attitudes (by native and non-native Krio speakers) to the linguistic status of the language and the lack of a well-developed and publicized standard writing system have made this a low priority issue for succeeding governments in Sierra Leone.   BACK TO TOP    SOUNDS   VOCABULARY    GRAMMAR     REFERENCES
SOUNDS Krio has 7 pure vowel system - i, e, E, a, O, o, u. (The symbol E is used here for the sound of 'e' in 'bet' and O is used for the sound of 'aw' in 'awful'.) It also has 3 diphthongs (combinations of vowels) -- ay, aw, Oy. Hence there is usually no distinction in the pronunciation of some minimal pairs of English words. For example: bit for beat/bit; pul for pool/pull; kOp for cup/cop. Some combinations of consonants in English words are reduced in the corresponding Krio words. For example: wes 'waste'; fas 'fast'; trit 'street'; tap 'stop'; tret 'straight'' prEd 'spread'; pit 'spit'; plit 'split'; ton 'stone'. Some unaccented syllables in English words are dropped in Krio words: bOt 'about'; fred 'afraid'; blant 'belong to'. In some words, different sounds are substituted. They include: v --> b: drEb 'drive' ebi 'heavy'; dEbul 'devil'. th --> t/d: tit 'teeth'; tEnki 'thanks'; wit 'with'; dEm them; brOda 'brother'. ay --> E: nEt 'night'; fEt 'fight'; rEs 'rice'; blEn 'blind'. Oy --> wE: bwEl 'boil'; pwEl 'spoil'. West African influence is evident in the presence of the sounds kp and gb: kpata-kpata; 'completely finished' agbo 'a medicinal herb'; gbagbati 'a show of force'; akpOlO 'frog'. Krio is a tonal language. This means that whether the pitch of different syllables of the word is high or low can make a difference in meaning. This occurs in words of both African and English origins. The tonal indications (H for high, L for low) follow each word: ale (LH) 'go away' ale (LL) 'skin-irritating herb' baba (HH) 'a type of drum' baba (HL) 'a barber' baba (LH) 'a young boy' gbangba (HH) 'a wide open public place' gbangba (LH) 'a medicinal herb' pata (HH) 'baby panties' pata (LH) 'a slap'; 'to hit with palm of hand' soso (HH) 'only'; 'nothing but ' soso (HL) 'so-so; Not too good, not too bad' soso (LH) ' Susu' (language of Sierra Leone) 'a native speaker of Susu' bebi (LH) 'a baby'; 'A doll' bebi (HL) 'girlfriend'; 'an attractive young woman' brOda (HL) 'brother' brOda (LH) 'an elder brother or older male relative' fada (HH) 'God' fada (HL) 'father' fada (LH) 'a Catholic priest' kOntri (HL) 'a country' kOntri (LH) 'someone who hails from the countryside' sista (HL) 'sister' sista (LH) 'an elder sister or older female relative' skwaya (HL) 'a square' (shape) skwaya (LH) 'a dull and inexperienced person' tEnki (HL) 'thank you' tEnki (LH) 'gratitude' BACK TO TOP    BACKGROUND   VOCABULARY    GRAMMAR     REFERENCES
VOCABULARY Words of English origin account for about 70% of the vocabulary of Krio, though a large number of words are borrowed from West African languages, particularly Yoruba, which is second only to English as the largest contributor to Krio vocabulary. While the pronunciations of English borrowings have in most cases been modified, words borrowed from African languages have generally retained the pronunciations they had in the language of origin. Some examples are given below (with the tone of each syllable shown, as described above in 'Sounds'): kabO (HL) 'welcome' kanga (LL) 'magic' koko (HH) 'a bump on the body', 'friend' arara (HHH) 'nothing at all' emina (HLH) 'plant with an edible yam-like tuber' okuru (LHH) 'rabies' wahala (LHL) 'trouble' alafia (LHHL) 'peace of mind' alakori (LHLH) 'good for nothing person' gbogbogia (LLLL) 'thick grass' kakatua (LLHL) 'the ring leader' OmOlanke (LLHH) 'handcart' tawakaltu (LLHL) 'to be determined' warawere (LLLH) 'suddenly; in a flash' Krio has a rich system of idiomatic expressions in the form of compounding, which seem to have parallels in some West African languages. For example: IGBO: anya uku (eye + big) 'greed' KRIO: big yay (big + eye) 'greed' YORUBA: Enu didu (mouth + sweet) 'persuasiveness' GA: na mo (sweet + mouth) 'flattery' TWI: ano yEdE (mouth + sweet) 'flattery' KRIO: swit mOt (sweet + mouth) 'persuasiveness' KRIO: swit yay (sweet + eye) 'womanizing' KRIO: swit pis (sweet + urine) 'diabetes' KIKONGO: kanga ntima (tie + heart) 'adamant' KRIO: tranga at (strong + heart) 'adamant' KRIO: big at (big + heart) 'proud", 'stubborn' KRIO: bad at (bad + heart) 'envy', 'jealousy'     BACK TO TOP    BACKGROUND    SOUNDS    GRAMMAR     REFERENCES
SOME GRAMMATICAL FEATURES Creoles generally lack inflectional markers (like -s, -ed and -ing in English). Separate words are used instead: dEm (plural marker) in (possessive marker &endash; used after the possessor), bin (past tense marker), de or di (progressive marker), dOn (perfective marker), fO (modal 'should'), and kin (modal 'could'). The verb 'to be' as a linking verb or copula generally does not occur. Other features include lack of inversion in questions, omission of articles except when used for semantic purposes, multiple negation, and non-use of past tense as unmarked. Marked forms are used only when necessary. Krio exhibits a number of grammatical features different from English. Some researchers have argued that these features may have been the influence of West African languages. For example: Focused constructions: These are used to emphasize a specific part of the sentence. The focus marker in Krio (na) is identical or similar in form and function to those used in a number of West African languages. For example: na plaba dEn de mek It-is quarrel they PROG making 'They are quarreling' na aki wi bin si It-is Aki we PAST see 'We saw Aki' na udat bin kam It-is who PAST come 'Who was here?' na gladi dEn gladi It-is happy they happy 'They are really happy.' Verb Serialization: This is one of the most distinguishing features of Krio that differentiates it from English. Such constructions generally contain one subject and a series of verbs that are not linked by an overt conjunction (subordinate or coordinate) or complementizer. Another subject is prohibited from appearing in front of subsequent verbs in the series. In addition, one verb does not serve as an auxiliary or infinitival complement to other verbs in the series. This construction type is found in other West African languages. For example: di uman kuk rEs sEl the woman cook rice sell 'The woman cooked some rice which she sold' i bai klos gi im pikin he buy clothes give his child 'He bought some clothes for his child' di bObO tek di sus trowe the boy take the shoes throw-away 'The boy threw away the shoes!!!' a tek nEf kOt di bred I take knife cut the bread 'I cut the bread with a knife' se as a Sentential Complementizer (Introduces a sentence): Four complementizers, all obligatorily overt, could be identified in Krio, with the sentential complementizer se being the most controversial. One aspect of the controversy revolves around whether it functions as a verb or a complementizer. It is homophonous with the lexical verb meaning 'say' in Krio, as is the case in a number of creoles and West African languages: a mEmba se dEm dOn kam I think say/that they PERF come 'I thought that they had arrived' i laikli se aki win loto It (be) likely say/that Aki win lottery 'It's likely that Abu won the lottery' di rumO se aki win loto na tru the rumor that Aki win lottery is true 'The rumor that Aki won the lottery was true' wetin yu tEl am se apin? What you tell him say/that happen 'What did you say happened?'   BACK TO TOP    BACKGROUND    SOUNDS   VOCABULARY    REFERENCES
REFERENCES Finney, M. 2002. Compounding and Reduplication in Krio. Journal of West African Languages, Vol. 29, No. 2, 23-34. ---. 2003. The Dynamics of Morphosyntactic Operations in Krio. Linguistic Review, Volume 2, Issue 3. ---. 2004. Tone assignment on Lexical Items of English and African Origin in Krio. Forthcoming in Genevieve Escure & Armin Schwegler (eds), Creoles, Contact and Language Change: Linguistics and Social Implications. John Benjamins. Fyle, Clifford & Jones, Eldred. 1980. A Krio - English dictionary, Oxford University Press. Hancock, Ian. 1986. The domestic hypothesis, diffusion and componentiality: An account of Atlantic Anglophone creole origins. In Pieter Muysken & Norval Smith (eds), Substrata versus universals in creole genesis. John Benjamins Publishing Company, AmsterdamPhiladelphia, 71-102. ---. 1987. A preliminary classification of the Anglophone Atlantic creoles with syntactic data from thirty-three representative dialects. In Glen G. Gilbert (ed), Pidgin and creole languages: Essays in memory of John E. Reinecke. University of Hawaii Press, Hololulu, 264-333. Huber, Magnus. 1999. Ghanian Pidgin English in its West African context: A sociohistorical and structural analysis. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. ---. 2000. Restructuring in vitro? Evidence from early Krio. In I. Neuman-Holzschuh & E. Schneider (eds), Degrees of restructuring in creole languages. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 275-307.   BACK TO TOP    BACKGROUND    SOUNDS    GRAMMAR    VOCABULARY