How to Spell and Read Belizean Kriol

Is there a right or wrong way to spell words in Belizean Kriol? Opinions vary on this. The short answer is that spelling Kriol words isn’t easy. Depending on who you ask, there is a standardized way to write in Kriol. Despite the publication of a Kriol dictionary, many Belizeans believe that if you can understand the word, it’s spelled correctly. In tonight’s installment of Kolcha Tuesday, News Five’s Paul Lopez hits the streets to see how well we know how to spell words in our common tongue.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

No matter where you go in Belize, you’ll hear people speaking Kriol. It’s different from Haitian Creole, Louisiana Creole, or the various patois found across the Caribbean, though there are some similarities. Belizean Creole is a vibrant mix of English, Miskito, Spanish, West African, and Bantu languages. Some Belizeans describe it as broken English, insisting there’s no right or wrong way to spell words in Belizean Creole.

 

Andrew Reynolds, Belize City Resident

“I went to some people at the Jehovah Witness Church, and they try to write in kriol, they try to read in kriol and it does not work. I could not understand nothing. I am sixty-five-years-old. I have been gone for thirty-five years. Still when I was growing up they was teaching us English in school. This broken English is not really cool. You cant go anywhere to talk kriol, nobody will understand you. Try and uplift yourself. I nuh down with the creole language.”

 

Silvaana Udz, the Chairperson of the Language Committee of the National Kriol Council says otherwise.

 

Paul Lopez

“There is this phrase, “the wronger ih wronger, the corrector it correct”.

 

Silvaana Udz, Chair, NKC Language Committee

“That dah just jokey talking when they think that kriol does be bastard English or so. Kriol as a language was born from the grammar of primary west African language pattern with whatever words the English mih the use. Deh the beat yo if yo nuh the chop the yard or whatever. Because of that the thinking of these great people from West Africa that were forced to come, our enslaved ancestors. Their pattern was different. All the creole languages, whether they are French based like Haitian Creole or Louisana Creole, they all have preverbal tense patterns.”

 

Even though Kriol is the lingua franca of Belize, reading and writing it isn’t straightforward for many Belizeans. We decided to put it to the test with a Kriol spelling challenge, using words with long vowels like ‘bone’ (spelt ‘boan’), ‘fight’ (spelt ‘fait’), ‘soup’ (spelt ‘soop’), and ‘water’ (spelt ‘waata’).

 

Paul Lopez

“The first word dah fight and you spell it fite. The second word is bone, as in a dog bone, chicken bone.”

 

Erick Garnett, Belize City Resident

“If you want you can say boan. I will ask you one, how do you pronounce no in creole?”

 

Paul Lopez

“Nuh?”

 

Erick Garnett

“Hmpmm.”

 

Paul Lopez

“The first word dah fight. The second word is bone. The third word is water. I’ll throw in a little bonus since you look like you really good at this. The final word is soup.Try spell the word leaf for me, like a long ee, the leef dah come from a tree.

Spell the word soup for me in creole.”

 

Ari Dorado, Belize City Resident

“I think dah wah good language for the people that can’t talk English good and they could understand that a little better.”

 

Paul Lopez

“The first word I have for you is fight, spell the word fight in creole. Second word in creole is bone, spell the word bone in creole.”

 

Benita Keme-Palacio, Belize City Resident

“House, house? Hous..”

 

This challenge showed that while some words might be easy to spell in Belizean Kriol, people generally struggle with spelling and reading the language. The University of Belize’s Intercultural Indigenous Language Institute aims to change that with a four-week course on Belize Kriol Literacy.

 

Delmer Tzib, Coordinator, UB Language Institute

“The whole idea here is that we develop a rooted citizen that s able to also develop appreciation for the local language and at the same time engage with global culture. So these languages and communications systems allow us to learn from each other, not only the language, but our cultural practices, nuances and different expressions that represent our identity.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez