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Belizean Creole, also called '''Belizean Kriol''', '''Kriol''' or '''Belizean''', is closely related to Miskito Coastal Creole , Rio Abajo Creole , Colón Creole , and San Andrés And Providencia Creole . Kriol was historically spoken by the Belizean Creoles , of mixed African and British ancestry. However, Kriol has about 350,000 speakers, between Belize (70% of the population, where it is the Lingua Franca ) and in the Belizean Diaspora , mostly in the United States . Most East Indian s, Garifuna s, Mestizo s, Maya s, and other ethnic groups speak Kriol as at least a second language. Fluency in Kriol is said to be the mark of a "true Belizean". LINGUISTIC BIOGRAPHY Belizean Creole is a Creole Language deriving mainly from English with little influence from Spanish . Its Substrate Languages are the Native American language Mískito , and West African languages which were brought into the country by slaves. The Pidgin that emerged due to the contact of English landowners and their West African slaves to ensure basic communication was extended over the years. Jamaica ns were also brought to the colony, further adding to the vocabulary, and eventually it became the mother tongue of the slaves' children born in Belize. This Creolization occurred around 1680-1700, when the British were firmly settled in the Caribbean. It was not, however, the Belizean Creole known today, but the so-called Mískito Coast Creole which developed into the Belizean Creole, or Kriol, over the years. Today, Belizean Creole is the native language of the majority of the country's inhabitants. Many of them speak standard English as well, and a rapid process of Decreolization is going on. As such, a Creole Continuum exists and speakers are able to Code-switch among various Mesolect registers between the most Basilect to the Acrolect (i.e Standard American English) varieties. It should be noted that the acrolect, much like the basilect, is rarely heard. PHONOLOGY Kriol is significantly similar to many Caribbean English dialects as far as phonology and spelling is concerned. Many of its words and structures are especially similar to English, on which it is based both lexically and phonologically. Phonologically, Belizean Creole is a perfect example of creole languages in the Caribbean and, partly, everywhere else. Like them, it uses a high amount of nasalized vowels, palatalizes non-labial stops and prenasalizes voiced stops. Moreover, pidgins have a general tendency to simplify the phonology of a language in order to ensure successful communication. Many creoles keep this tendency after creolization. Belizean Creole is no exception in this point. Unlike most creoles, Kriol has a standardized orthography. 1. Like most creole languages, Kriol has a tendency to an open syllabic structure, meaning there are a lot of words ending in vowels. This feature is strengthened by its tendency to delete consonants at the end of words, especially when the preceding vowel is unstressed. 2. Nasalization is phonemic in Belizean Creole, caused by the deletion of final nasal consonants. The nasal feature is kept, even if the consonant has been dropped. 3. Many Kriol speakers tend to palatalize the velar consonants and . Sometimes they also palatalize alveolar consonants, such as , , and . 4. Like all other creoles, Kriol also has a tendency to reduce consonant clusters no matter where they occur. Final consonant clusters are almost always reduced by dropping the second consonant. Initial and medial occurrences are reduced much less consistently. 5. When occurs finally, it is always deleted. When it occurs in the middle of a word, it is often deleted leaving a residual vowel length. 6. Although its Superstrate language, English, makes extensive use of dental fricatives (), Belizean Kriol does not use them. It rather employs the alveolars and . However, due to the ongoing process of decreolization, some speakers include such dental fricatives in their speech. 7. Unstressed initial vowels are often deleted in Kriol. Sometimes this can lead to a glottal stop instead. 8. Vowels tend to be alternated for the ones used in English, f.i. or (''boy'') becomes , (''angry'') becomes and so on. Consonants Kriol uses three voiced plosives () and three voiceless plosives(). The voiceless stops can also be Aspirated . However, aspiration is not a constant feature, therefore the aspirated and non-aspirated forms are Allophonic . The language employs three nasal consonants, (). It makes extensive use of fricatives and, both unvoiced () and voiced (. Its two liquids, and , are articulated alveo-palatally. The tongue is more lax here than in American English, its position is more similar to British English. Kriol's glides , , and are used extensively. Glottal stops occur rarely and inconsistently. Vowels Belizean Creole makes use of eleven vowels; nine monophthongs, three Diphthong s and Schwa . The most frequently occurring diphthong, is used in all regional varieties. Both and can occur, but they are new additions and are viewed as a sign of decreolization. The same is perceived of four of the less productive monophthongs. MORPHOLOGY Tense |
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