Kriol Inglish Dikshineri HITS THE STREETS
Thursday, 01 November 2007

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 31, 2007 - Belizeans now have a Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri (English- Creole Dictionary) thanks to the Ministry of Education, National Institute of Culture and History and the National Kriol Council. The book was launched today in a ceremony that was held on the lawn of the House of Culture.

Those who were present included the Minister of Education Hon. Francis Fonseca, NICH Chairman Yasser Musa and the Governor General Sir Colville Young PhD.

The book was compiled and edited by Yvette Herrera, Myrna Manzanares, Sylvana Woods, Cynthia Crosbie and Ken Decker. The Editor–in- Chief of the tome is Paul Crosbie. The foreword was written by Sir Colville Young.


Showcasing the Kriol Inglish Dikshineri (Creole-English Dictionary)

The contents of the book consist of a guide to using the dictionary, the Kriol writing system, grammar notes, Kriol to English and English to Kriol.

Silvana Woods was the master of ceremonies at the launching.

The official remarks were delivered by Hon. Francis Fonseca. Yasser Musa also spoke on behalf of NICH.

The welcome address was given by Ms. Manzanares who is the President of the National Kriol Council.

Scripture reading was done by Ms. Herrera and the invocation was done by Bishop Phillip Wright.

The National anthem was sung by students of St. Luke Methodist Primary School with the guidance of teacher Lavern Ferguson.


Students at Dikshineri launch

During the ceremony Bruckdown Queen Leela Vernon- who performed - also presented an award of appreciation to Sir Colville. Sir Colville also received some of the Kriol Dictionary books. There was a dance selection done by students of Queen Square Primary School under the tutelage of Rosita Baltazar.

Brukdown king Wilfred Peters was also a performer at the launch.

The thank you address was given by Mrs. Alvia Wade.

The book is on sale at $25.00 for wholesale price and $30.00 at retail price.

The Kriol dictionary has the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture and NICH, the National Institute of Culture and History. It is the Ministry and NICH that funded the printing of the first run of 1,000 (one thousand) copies.


Brukdong king Mr. Peters, Minister of Education Hon. Francis Fonseca, Brukdong queen Leela Vernon & NICH President Yasser Musa

The dictionary is in two parts. The first part, Kriol-English, is arranged alphabetically according to Kriol key words, with an English definition and other entry items. The second part of the dictionary, English to Kriol, is arranged alphabetically according to the English key word. Only the part of speech and the correlating Kriol word(s) are given in this section. The purpose of this part of the dictionary is to point the reader to the correct spot in the Kriol-English part of the dictionary for more complete information.

The Belize Kriol Project is the literacy arm of the National Kriol Council of Belize. It was created in 1993 and, since then, it has produced over fifteen books in the Kriol language, a comprehensive Grammar of the Kriol Language, and several Bible translations and songs of praise in Kriol.

http://belizetimes.biz/content/view/570/9/

Kriol sounds so much like English in many ways but the thing that makes it hard to understand is all the extra connecting words and the order in which the words are put.

The article keeps referring to Creole as a language. Many years ago in response to a request for George Price to make creole the national language of Belize, he politely responded, 'Creole can't be a language it has no body of literature or dictionary.' Since then some Belizeans have made a large effort to create a Dictionary and body of literature. I think Mr. Price was trying to be nice and it backfired on him. He should have said Creole will never be a language its a dialect. I'm pro creole, it has a place, but is not and will never be a language.

Does anyone know where I can buy this? I saw a copy while I was visitng the Holy Cross School in November, and I must have one!

Seen it last week at Brodie's and should also be available at Angelus Press.

I always thought of Kriol/Creole to be a dialect, not a language, although I know that there have been concerted efforts to identify it as a language. I have not, in the past, considered it a distinct language like Garifuna, which does not contain words influenced by any of the romance languages. There are many different versions of creole spoken throughout the Caribbean, and indeed throughout the world. I do not know if a creole-speaker from, say, Trinidad, would easily understand a creole-speaker from Jamaica, considering the influence of Portugese/Spanish on those speakers from Trinidad and the English/Spanish influence in Jamaica. I found an interesting article on the difference between a dialect and a language here:
http://www.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/08/whats_the_diffe.html

Thanks for that catdance
"So, do you conclude from all this that the terms "dialect" and "language" are politically and socially loaded? If so, you're absolutely right."
I have to agree with that!
Being understood may be the criteria for definition. I've admired Belizean Creole as a solution to a problem, saving our nation of mixed origins from being Babel, but it has huge failings in communication and is only a compromise to language/dialect differences. We are wise to have English as our national language because of its ability to be exact, giving us power in communicating with the worlds business community.

Fascinating subject. David Crystal has written many books on language which any interested person would find enlightening.

We're all lucky to speak English (or in some cases, a version of.....). It is by far the most intricate and developed language there is, and the reason there are so many alternative quite unrelated words with roughly the same meaning is the many origins English has. American English has been greatly diluted because it developed as a utilitarian way of communicating for people whose native languages were something different, with subtley going out of the window. Modern rapid communications are a great levelling force, and I for one hope that in 100 years English hasn't been greatly downgraded.

"(or in some cases, a version of.....)', I'm trying not to take that personal, reminding myself the remark came from an Englishman.:-)
All language/dilects are now evolving because of the internet communication tool.
I have daily exchanges with Russians and Ukrainians. We had difficulty at first with our various translation softwares but have arrived at a common place void of nationalized idioms that uses more familiar internet terms and symbols. Cyrillic is a bear of a language. :-0
I noticed the world doesn't bend to use more Chinese, or russian, china and russia bend to use more english, but the modern slang version that has evolved from computer communication.

Thanks for the information everyone. I'll pick one up next time down....unless of course you guys know somewhere I can buy it on line. Any ideas?

I think Kriol is a beautiful language, dialect, or what ever you want to call it!

Kriol is not a written language. Someone is making a job for themselves.

The Belizean Kriol initiative is a very worthy effort. Silvana Woods is spearheading the effort in Belize and it includes language academicians and musicologists who contribute. There was a grammar book and a religious music CD marketed earlier and they put out the Kriol Kalenda annually.

See: www.kriol.org.bz

Are the dictionary and other Kriol books available for purchase anywhere in San Pedro? I would like to get some of the children's books for my kids and the dictionary for myself.