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pgbk87 Offline OP
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Proof that Belizean Kriol is a mixed language and not simply "broken english":

West & Central African words in Belizean Kriol:
  • Anansi = "Spider", from the Ewe language
  • Bakra = From the word "mbakra" in Efik languages. It mean's "white man"
  • Duppy/Dopi = n. Ghost. Akan origins
  • Jook = v. To penetrate. Fula/Fulani origins
  • Nyam, Niam, or Yam = v. To eat. Wolof/Fula/Fulani origins
  • Obeah/Obia = n. Folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices. Specifically Igbo origin
  • Okra = From "okwur;" in Igbo, a vegetable.
  • Se or Seh = Meaning "That". From Igbo
  • Unu = n. "You all", "You guys". Of Igbo origin, meaning the same thing

    Continued......
  • Bambam: A food made with cassava, etym. possibly from Ngwa-Igbo gbam-gbam meaning 'a plate for eating'
  • Bammy or bami: A cassava bread, etym. G�-Adangme bami
  • Cho!: Exclamation of disgust, annoyance, etym. Ewe tsoo 'exclamation of surprise' (A)
  • Da: is, am, are, "Ih da di teacha." 'He/she is the teacher.' etym. similar forms are found in Ewe, Igbo, Twi, and Yoruba (A)
  • Da: at, on, in, to, etym. Ewe de (A)
  • Da: it is (focus), "Da hihn weh shub ahn." 'It was he who pushed him/her.' etym. several Africa languages use a similar form for similar functions, for example Igbo de and Twi da (A)
  • Deh / Di: am, is, are (located) , "Ih deh pahn di boat" 'He/she is on the boat'; etym. probably developed from similar words in several African languages (A)
  • Dehn or Dem: them, they, their, etym. English them, however its use as a multi-functional pronoun probably is related to similar usage in several W. African languages (A)
  • Dehn or Dem: (post-noun plural marker), "Di bwai dehn" 'The boys', etym. English them, however its use in forming the plural is probably related to similar usage in several W. African languages (A)
  • Fi / Fu: To, for. "Ah gaan fi sell janny kake." 'I went to sell johnny cakes.' etym. possibly a convergence of English for and African forms like Twi and Yoruba fa and Mandinka fo having similar uses.
  • Gombeh: A goat-skin drum played with the hands, etym. any of several Bantu languages of Africa, for example Kikongo ngoma meaning 'drum' (A)
  • Jankunu: A costumed dance, different versions are found in Jamaica and Bahamas, in Belize the costume and dance originate from a comical ridicule of slave masters, etym. possibly Ewe dzon meaning 'sorcerer' + kunu meaning 'something deadly' (H), or Yoruba jo meaning 'dance' + n-n-kon having a general meaning of 'things, spells, feats' (A)
  • Kot Aiy or "Cut Eye":a gesture of contempt, deliberately clossing the eyes while turning the head away from somebody, etym. English cut + eye, however, putting the meaning of those two words together for the same gesture is common through West and Central Africa (A)
  • Kunku: Small size or amount, etym. Yoruba konko (DMY:380)
  • Tata Duhendeh: A mythical short man who lives in the bush, his feet are backwards and he has no thumbs, etym. probably Latin American Spanish tata meaning 'father'< Nahuatl tlatla + duende meaning ghost (A), however there may have been convergence with a common Bantu term taata meaning 'father' (H2)
  • Waawa: Cowardly, childishly foolish, etym. Hausa wawa meaning 'foolish' (H)
  • Wangla: Sesame seed, a candy made with sesame seeds, etym. Kikongo waangila meaning 'sesame seed'[/SIZE]
  • Yaiy Waata or "Yeye Watah": Tears, etym. English eye + water, however the process of putting those two words together to mean 'tears' comes from Africa, such as Igbo anya mmili, eye + water meaning 'tears' (A)


Miskito words in Belizean Kriol:
  • Bilam: A small river fish (tetra)
  • Bribri: A species of pod-bearing tree (Inga edulis)
  • Doary: A small dugout canoe
  • Duki: A chart with a picture of a skeleton which is numbered used for interpreting dreams by lottery ticket buyers
  • Gibnat: a small rodent (Cuniculus paca) -> Taste really good...Yum :p
  • Hooyu: A night bird, variously identified as Pauraque, spot-tailed nightjar, goatsucker, night hawk, Santa Maria bird, whip-poorwill, or dwarf owl
  • Kiskis: Wooden tongs for handling hot coals in a cooking fire, etym. Rama kiskis (H)
  • Konkas: Housefly, etym. Miskito kingkas, kukas (H)
  • Kraabu: A fruit tree, the yellow berries of the tree (Brysonima crassifolia), etym. Miskito krabo (H)
  • Kuhune: A species of palm tree, the nut of the kuhune (Orbignya cohune), etym. Miskito ohom, uhum, ohung (H)
  • Kwam: A turkey-like fowl, the guan (Penelope sp.), etym. Miskito kwamu (H)
  • Maklala /Makala: A small lizard species (Sp lagartillo copetudo), etym. Miskito mahklala (H)
  • Papta: A species of palmetto or fan palm (acoelorrhaphe wrightii), etym. Rama papta (H)
  • Pataki: A large rectangular basket constructed with double walls, wide leaves are layered between the walls to make the basket water-proof and able to float, etym. Miskito pataki meaning ?basket? (A)
  • Pitpan: A long flatbottom dugout canoe, a flatbottom boat, etym. Miskito pitpan (H)
  • Pyampyam: A bird species, the Central American magpie or brown jay (Psilorhynus mexicana or morio), etym. Miskito piampiam (H)
  • Raati: A large species of sea crab (Callinectes sp.), etym. Miskito rahti (H)
  • Soopa or Supa: A tall palm tree species, the starchy orange-colored fruit (Culielma utilis or Acromia mexicana), etym. Miskito supa (H)
  • Taapong: Tarpon, a large marine fish (Tarpon atlanticus), etym. Miskito tahpam (H)
  • Tuba: A species of river fish (Chichilasoma spp), etym. Miskito tuba (H)
  • Waari: The white-lipped peccary, a wild pig (Tayassu tajacu), etym. Miskito wari (H)
  • Waata daag: The river otter (Lutra felina), etym. while the words are English the formation may be influenced by Miskito li yula meaning literally ?water? + ?dog? (H)
  • Waha: A species of broad-leaf plant (Calathea insignis), leaves are used for wrapping and serving food items, etym. Miskito waha (H)
  • Weewi Ants:a species of leaf-cutting ant (Atta cephalotea), etym. Miskito wiwi (H)
  • Wowla: A species of snake, boa constrictor; a long snake-shaped basket used for processing cassava for breadmaking. etym. Miskito waula ?boa?. (H)

Last edited by pgbk87; 10/07/12 09:14 AM.
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Loving this stuff you are posting, especially the pictures. One word you've set out "cho!", I found particularly interesting because my family from Singapore uses this word, with the same "meaning" and in the same way. How would/could you extrapolate that from African language(s) or dialect(s)? Thanks!


A fish and a bird can fall in love, but where will they build their nest?

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pgbk87 Offline OP
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Originally Posted by seashell
Loving this stuff you are posting, especially the pictures. One word you've set out "cho!", I found particularly interesting because my family from Singapore uses this word, with the same "meaning" and in the same way. How would/could you extrapolate that from African language(s) or dialect(s)? Thanks!


Thanks!

Well apparently it's used in the Ewe language (Ghana & Togo). A large source of African slaves.

It's just a three-letter word, so there is probably some word like it in Indo-European languages or Afro-Asiatic, but that doesn't mean it came from it lol

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I'm not sure whether there is definitive proof on the origins of Creole as a language. Anthropologists have theorized about creole and pidgin origins for quite awhile. There a 5 commonly regarded theories about it. The first is the baby talk theory advocated by Charles Leland about 100 years ago. The second is via Independent parallel development whose chief proponent was Robert Hall about 75 years ago. Then there's the nautical jargon theory expounded by John Reineche around 1940. The fourth theory is called Relexification which had Portuguese as the lingua franca. The most current is the universalist theory. When I was a grad student in Anthropology the relexification theory was most preveliant. Basically the portuguese sailors incorporated local words into a framework of Portuguese. These then spread via slave trade and nautical exploration.

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pgbk87 Offline OP
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Originally Posted by ron
I'm not sure whether there is definitive proof on the origins of Creole as a language. Anthropologists have theorized about creole and pidgin origins for quite awhile. There a 5 commonly regarded theories about it. The first is the baby talk theory advocated by Charles Leland about 100 years ago. The second is via Independent parallel development whose chief proponent was Robert Hall about 75 years ago. Then there's the nautical jargon theory expounded by John Reineche around 1940. The fourth theory is called Relexification which had Portuguese as the lingua franca. The most current is the universalist theory. When I was a grad student in Anthropology the relexification theory was most preveliant. Basically the portuguese sailors incorporated local words into a framework of Portuguese. These then spread via slave trade and nautical exploration.


It's really a combination of all.

Belizean Kriol is more complicated because it is a Western Caribbean Creole that branched off from the the common ancestor of Jamaican Patois 250-300 years ago. The same can be said for San Andres and Providencia Creole (islands off of Nicaragua), Cayman/Bay Islands Dialect and Miskito Coastal Creole (Nicaragua).

Limon Creole or "Mekatelyu" (Costa Rica), and the 3 Panamanian Creoles (Colon, Bocas Del Toro, Rio Abajo) are more direct descendants of Jamaican Patois.

At one point (400-500 years ago), ALL English Creoles sounded vaguely like Nigerian Pidgin English and other Pidgin Englishes found along the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Bight Of Biafra (Nigeria, Cameroon).

Last edited by pgbk87; 10/07/12 10:45 AM.
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For me the Belizean kriol is much easier to understand then what I found in Boca del Toro and even that of Nigeria. I thought that the Nigerian Creole that I heard when I lived there was more influenced by the Portuguese then the English. Its also interesting that when I lived in both Botswana and Zambia there was no creole being spoken but more proper (?) English. In Dar es Salaam there was a more widely spoken creole then English or German and that creole seemed to me to be more similar to what I encountered in Nigeria. That could be bad memory on my part since it was about 20 years between when I was Tanzania and Nigeria.

Last edited by ron; 10/07/12 12:25 PM. Reason: spelling
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pgbk87 Offline OP
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Originally Posted by ron
For me the Belizean kriol is much easier to understand then what I found in Boca del Toro and even that of Nigeria. I thought that the Nigerian Creole that I heard when I lived there was more influenced by the Portuguese then the English. Its also interesting that when I lived in both Botswana and Zambia there was no creole being spoken but more proper (?) English. In Dar es Salaam there was a more widely spoken creole then English or German and that creole seemed to me to be more similar to what I encountered in Nigeria. That could be bad memory on my part since it was about 20 years between when I was Tanzania and Nigeria.


I think it's because Belizean Kriol's pronunciation system isn't too far from standard (England) English.

Nigeria's Creole is more of a Pidgin, since no one speaks it as a lingua franca.

Creoles developed in the Atlantic, so most Central and Southern African country's completely lack Creoles

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Fascinating discussion, but could somebody translate the hard parts?
;-)



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pgbk87 Offline OP
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Originally Posted by Diane Campbell
Fascinating discussion, but could somebody translate the hard parts?
;-)




lol. What hard parts?


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