See also the Keriu language and Krio Dayak language of Indonesia.

Krio (also Creo or Creole) is a Creole language native to the Krios, a community of about 100,000 descendants of freed slaves living in Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown and in a diaspora centred on West Africa, the UK and eastern United States. It is also spoken as a lingua franca, or second language, by about 4 million Sierra Leoneans of other ethnic groups, and by thousands of Krio descendants living in other parts of West Africa. Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... A creole language, or simply a creole, is stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many features that are not inherited from any parent. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Krio Dayak language. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Keriu language. ... A creole language, or simply a creole, is stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many features that are not inherited from any parent. ... Krio is a diverse, mainly Christian culture founded by freed African slaves from Britain, Northern America and Jamaica who settled in Freetown in the late 18th century. ... Freetown, population 1,070,200 (2004), is the largest city and capital of Sierra Leone, lying on the Freetown Peninsula on the Atlantic coast. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ...  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb[1] West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ...

The vocabulary of Krio is derived primarily from English, while its sound system, grammar and sentence structure are heavily influenced by African languages, particularly the Yoruba language of Nigeria. Krio's standard greeting kushe, for instance, is derived from the Yoruba greeting è kú işé ("greetings on your work"). Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Yoruba (native name ede Yorùbá, the Yoruba language) is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 22 million speakers. ...

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 the native language of the Krios, descendants of the freed slaves, and thus became a creole language. Krio has been called "a mixture of mixtures." The Atlantic slave trade was the trade of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. ... A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of two or more languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues, and usually a simplified form of one of the languages. ... West African Pidgin English, also called Guinea Coast Creole English, was the lingua franca of commerce along the West African coast during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. ...

Language usage

Krio usage in Sierra Leone

Most creoles live in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, and their community accounts for only about 2% of Sierra Leone's total population. 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 tribes in Sierra Leone. Many Mendes, Temnes, and Limbas grow up in the interior of the country speaking both their native languages and Krio. Krio is also the lingua franca in Sierra Leone's major cities, and many Sierra Leoneans of mixed heritage who grow up in the cities -- and who are not ethnic Krios -- also grow up speaking Krio as their native language. Freetown, population 1,070,200 (2004), is the largest city and capital of Sierra Leone, lying on the Freetown Peninsula on the Atlantic coast. ... The Mende are a large tribe (population approximately 700,000), speakers of the Mende language, living primarily in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. ... The Temne people are the largest ethnic group in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, and they make up about 30 percent of Sierra Leones total population. ... The Limba people are one of the indigenous tribes, or ethnic groups, in the Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa. ...

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.

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. Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Thomas Decker may refer to: Thomas Dekker Thomas Decker (translator) Category: ...

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 the Krio language 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, and Belizean Creole. An English-based creole language, or English creole for short, is a creole language that was significantly influenced by the English language. ... Nigerian Pidgin English is a version of English with Nigerian elements (words, gestures, and connotations) added in. ... Cameroonian Pidgin English, or Cameroonian Creole, is a linguistic entity of Cameroon. ... The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English, Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called Geechees), an African American population living on the Sea Islands and the coastal region of the U.S. states of South Carolina and Georgia. ... Jamaican Creole, also known locally as Patois/(Patwa) or simply Jamaican, is an English/African-based language --not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English-- used primarily on the island of Jamaica. ... Belizean Kriol, Kriol, or quite simply Belizean, is one of the main branches of Central American Creole English, closely related to Miskito Coastal Creole, Colón Creole, and San Andrés and Providencia Creole. ...

Orthography

The Sierra Leone Government's official orthography for Krio uses the Latin Alphabet (without Qq and Xx) and three letters from the African reference alphabet. Thomas Decker, the Krio poet, also devised an orthography for Krio that uses only Latin letters, and since the special characters employed in the official system cannot be used in this entry, the following examples are rendered in Decker's system of writing. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Look up Q, q in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up X, x in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The proposal of an African reference alphabet was the result of a conference at Niamey in 1978 organized by the UNESCO. The alphabet was revised in 1982. ...

The complete alphabet with digraphs is as follows: Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

G, g G, g

Language samples

Below is a sample of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Krio: Bold text Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ...

Below are some sample sentences in Krio:

Kushe. - "Hello."

Kushe-o. - "Hello."

Weytin na yu neym? - "What is your name?"

A neym Jeymz. - "My name is James."

Usai yu kohmoht? - "Where do you come from?"

A kohmoht Eystinz. - "I come from Hastings."

Us wok yu dey du? - "What work do you do?"

Mi na ticha. - "I am a teacher."

Na us skul yu dey tich? - "What school do you teach at?"

A dey tich na Prins ohv Weylz. - "I teach at Prince of Wales."

A gladi foh mit yu. - "I am happy to meet you."

Misef gladi foh mit yu. - "I myself am happy to meet you."

OK, a dey go nau. - "OK, I am going now."

Ohrait, wi go si bak. - "Alright, we will see again."

Krio in films

Krio (though incorrectly) is used early in the 2006 film Blood Diamond between Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and a character named Commander Zero. Blood Diamond is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed and produced by Edward Zwick. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

See also

• List of numbers in various languages
• Ian Hancock

It has been suggested that List of names of 1 to 10 in different languages be merged into this article or section. ... Ian Hancock is a renowned Romani scholar. ...

References and further reading

• Ethnologue report for language code:kri
• "The Use of Pre-Verbal Particles in Sierra Leone Krio"

External links

• Ethnologue report for Krio
• Krio Research Centre at Umeå University, Sweden.
• Krio proverbs
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Krio
• PanAfrican L10n page on Krio (& Pidgin)