Kriol – Inglish Dikshineri

Kriol ? Inglish Dikshineri English ? Kriol Dictionary

Compiled and edited by

Yvette Herrera Myrna Manzanares

Silvana Woods Cynthia Crosbie

Ken Decker

Editor-in-Chief

Paul Crosbie

Belize Kriol Project

Cover design: Adapted from Yasser Musa Cover photo: Courtesy Robert Spain at 2008 Crooked Tree Cashew Fest

Illustrations in the Introduction are from The Art of Reading, SIL International Literacy Department



SIL International provided linguistic consultancy to this publication of the Belize Kriol Project. The Belize Kriol Project is the language development arm of The National Kriol Council.

The National Kriol Council House of Culture, Regent Street P.O. Box 2447 Belize City Belize .bz

Belize Kriol Project P.O. Box 2120 Office: 33 Central American Blvd. Belize City, Belize

The first printing of this dictionary was in 2007 and was funded by The Ministry of Education and The National Institute of Culture and History

House of Culture, Regent Street Belize City, Belize

First Edition Copyright ? 2007 Belize Kriol Project

Second Printing 2009 ISBN # 978-976-95165-1-9

Printed by Print Belize Belmopan, Belize

CONTENTS

List of Abbreviations .......................................... iv Foreword by Sir Colville Young.............................v Preface ..................................................................... ix Acknowledgements.............................................. xi Introduction .............................................................1 Guide to Using the Dictionary...........................3 The Kriol Writing System ........................... 10 Grammar Notes....................................................16 KRIOL tu INGLISH .........................................19 ENGLISH to KRIOL ..................................... 381 References.............................................................465

List of Abbreviations

adj. adv. Afr. Am. art. BK conj. Eng. foc. Fr. ono. int. n. neg. NKC

Misk. num.

adjective adverb African American article Belize Kriol conjunction English focus marker French onomatopoeia interjection noun negative National Kriol Council

Miskito number

obj. phr. pl. Port. poss. prep. pro. pro.adj.

ref. sal. sg. sp. Sp. subj. v. var: <

object phrase plural Portuguese possessive preposition pronoun pronominal adjective reference salutation singular specific Spanish subject verb variant originating from

(etymological reference)

iv

Foreword

By Sir Colville Young GCMG, Ph.D

A language, like a people, can be marginalized -- by which I mean, it can be treated as insignificant or even unworthy of being called a language, or of scholarly interest. The creole and pidgin languages of the world have especially suffered in this regard. As the noted creolist Dell Hymes1 put it in 1971, "The languages called pidgins and creoles have long been a stepchild, so far as serious attention, either public or scientific, is concerned." He added, significantly, "The stepchild may prove to be a Cinderella."

Most people now accept that it is most unreasonable to ignore or denigrate the daily speech (and in many cases the only speech) of millions of people.

One reason for the slow acceptance of pidgins and creoles as "real" languages was the fact that they "lacked a dictionary or grammar." Of course, all languages at one time lacked dictionaries, or formal, codified exposition of their grammatical systems.

As far as Belize Kriol grammar is concerned, a scholarly grammar has long been made available in my doctoral thesis "Belize Creole: a study of the Creolized English spoken in (Belize)."2 All that was needed to silence the nay-sayers completely was a dictionary, and with this publication that need is met at last.

I believe Belize Kriol to be the most widely used of all the many languages spoken in Belize. If for no other reason, it deserves a published list of its words, with their meanings and variety of usages as well as (if space permits) etymologies

1 Preface to Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, ed. Dell Hymes. Cambridge 1971. 2 Unpublished York University thesis, 1973.

v

where these can be determined, and examples of the words correctly used in sentences.

Professor Richard Allsopp describes a dictionary as "a reliable inventory of one's environment, small or large."3

The words which form that inventory of our Kriol are from a variety of sources, reflecting the language's long existence and development, and exposure to a variety of influences.

There are words from African languages that date from the days of slavery, for example juk, nyam and guzu. The first, juk, is so widely used that foreign nurses and doctors have to include "nail- juk" (not "nail-puncture") in their vocabulary when they come to work in Belize. Nyam ("eat") is for most urban Belizeans rather archaic if not obsolete -- but is alive and well in most rural communities, especially the villages of the Belize River valley. Guzu ("bad luck; something that brings bad luck") is least heard of the three examples I have given of African survivals.

An African survival I find fascinating is Krofi, which is actually a mispronunciation of Kofi, an African day-name. (The correct original form of the name is seen in Kofi Anan, the former U. N. Secretary-General.)

Then there are words of Spanish origin, three being goma ("hangover"), tableta ("a coconut confection") and the quite ubiquitous bali/balidor ("friend") from Mexican ?Spanish valedor of similar meaning.

Faced with the flora and fauna of a new environment, the early settlers (whether British or African) often used a word familiar from their home usage. A good example is the berry Cocoloba uvifera called "grape" in Belize because its colour, size and shape resemble the grape the early settlers knew from Britain.

3 Allsopp: Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Oxford University Press 1996.

vi

Then there are the numerous Miskito words borrowed from the speech of the Miskito "Indians" who worked in the timber industry in slavery and post-slavery days.

Whatever the origins, the words which make up the vocabulary of our Kriol have at last been adequately recognized and I am sure I speak for all Belize in congratulating the editors of the dictionary and the Kriol Council whose hard work has now borne fruit.

As the Summer Institute of Linguistics puts it, "Groups which have lived on the fringes of more dominant cultures are now finding more of a place for their own unique identity and a viability of their own language in the wider culture."4

Even as we are grateful to have as our official language English, the most widely spoken (and therefore most useful) language on our planet, we are proud to keep alive our national cultures, and the languages through which those cultures find their fullest expression ? and that must include the Kriol language.

BELIZE HOUSE BELIZE, C.A.

4 A Service to People in a Changing World: The Summer Institute of Linguistics (undated) Dallas, TX.

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