Krioor Sierra Leonean Creole, an English-based creole, is the most spoken language of Sierra Leone. The abolition of slavery played a very important role in the creation of this creole because its native speakers are descendants of slaves that were freed from the United States and the Caribbean, the Krios. The Kriosalso known as Sierra Leone Creole people, landed between the 18thand 19thcenturies in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. This city was founded in 1792 by the British with the support of the abolitionists with the purpose to receive the freed African American and West Indies slaves.
Although the Kriosfirst settled in Freetown, nowadays they can be found in many other countries such as Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, the UK, and the USA. Their estimated total population is of 734,400 registered Kriosworldwide, and 683,000 of them living in Sierra Leone.
In order to understand the origins of the language it is important to be aware of the different factors that played a role in its creation. According to most linguists, we can find its origin in the pidgin language used by the Europeans and Africas during their trading operations during the 17thand the 18thcentury. This pidgin was called West African Pigdin English and it became the lingua franca among the people of West Africa during that period. When the Kriosarrived to Freetown, the pidgin language was the one used among freed slaves to communicate with each other and ended up becoming a creole.
Although around 90% of the population of Sierra Leone speaks Kriofluently, English is the official language. However, Kriois still the language used among the people with different ethnic background to understand each other. Keepingthis fact in mind, it is important to know that the current population of Kriosin Sierra Leone only makes up 2% of the total; with other ethnic groups like the Temmeand the Mendemaking up for more than 60% of the total. The diversity that can be found in Sierra Leone is quite impressive with more than 7 different ethnicities living in the country. This means that although Kriois spoken by the majority of the population, it does not mean that they all speak it as their first language.
What is more, the people who do not speak English which is the official language as was stated before, speak Krioinstead. However, this does not mean that people who speak English do not speak Krio, and a perfect example can be seen in the link below where the former president of Sierra Leona is shown speaking English and Kriodepending on the different contexts without any trouble.
Krio has been able to survive for a long time in a country where English is official and this is impressive. Some of the most important texts of history have been translated into Krio many years ago such as the Bible or many Shakespeare’s works. What is more, there is even a dictionary that translates from Krio into English. All these facts along with the historical and demographic factors mentioned before, made the Krio creole, a complex language that stood on its own and was able to survive even when the Krios population decreased dramatically.
Moving on into the linguistic features of Krio it is important to mention that it was made up from more languages than just English and indigenous languages but from more European languages as well. For this reason, it is such a complex creole.
Some of the most important features or at east more shocking from my point of view have to do with its grammar. Regarding the verbs, it is important to notice that there is no conjugation with the person or number of the noun, and instead, the tense is reflected. The tense markers “bin” and “go” are used to express past and future and when there is no marker, the verb is in its present form. Something similar happens with the pronouns because there is no differentiation between genders and oddly enough, it has the 2nd person plural form that cannot be found in English. Lastly, another interesting feature is the use of the suffix “dèm” to mark the plural of a word.
Regarding its orthography, it is also significant to make a quick reference to the fact that although it uses the Latin alphabet, it has three more letters from the African alphabet. In the image bellow we can see the alternative Thomas Decker proposed to represent those different characters with the Latin alphabet.
Sources:
- Bubudi. (2016, April 6). Djembefola: Drum and Dance Community. Retrieved January 9, 2017, from Krio language thread: http://djembefola.com/board/cultural-f32/krio-language-thread-t1911.html
- Joshua Project. (n.d.). Joshua Project. Retrieved January 9, 2017, from Krio, Creole in Sierra Leone: https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/11244/SL
- BBC (Producer), & MacNeil, R. (Director). (1985). “The Story of English” [Motion Picture].
- National African Language Resource Center (NALRC). (n.d.). National African Language Resource Center (NALRC). Retrieved January 3, 2017, from Krio: http://www.nalrc.indiana.edu/brochures/krio.pdf
- Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. (n.d.). Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. Retrieved from Sierra Leonean Creole (Krio): http://www.omniglot.com/writing/krio.htm
