Australian Kriol, also known as Roper River Kriol, Fitzroy Valley Kriol, Australian Creole, Northern Australian Creole or Aboriginal English, is an English-based

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

that developed from a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

used initially in the region of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia, in the early days of

European colonization The phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by various civilizations such as the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Han Chinese, and A ...

. Later, it was spoken by groups further west and north. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country, except in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, where the contact between European settlers, Chinese people and other Asian groups, and the

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

in the northern regions has maintained a vibrant use of the language, which is spoken by about 30,000 people. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

. It is a language in its own right and is distinct from

Torres Strait Creole Torres Strait Creole (), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a variety of Pidgin ...

History

The first records of the progenitor to Kriol, a

called Port Jackson Pidgin English (PJPE), are found from the 1780s, with the pidgin being used for communication between the white settlers around

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

and the local indigenous population. During that period, relations between the native Australians and Europeans were strained and often violent. Aboriginal people fiercely defended their lands. However, the control of lands was eventually seized by the settlers when a cattle company acquired much of the area. The settlers became more determined to take full control of the land from the native people and carried out a campaign to do so. European settlement in the

was attempted over a period of about forty years. Settlement finally succeeded in 1870 with the founding of Darwin, and an influx of English and Chinese speakers followed. To communicate between these two groups and the local Aboriginal people, many

s developed throughout the territory based on PJPE. By 1900, PJPE had developed into Northern Territory Pidgin English (NTPE), which was widespread and well understood. Then, by 1908, NTPE would creolize into Australian Kriol, starting first in the

Roper River The Roper River is a large perennial river located in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Location and features Formed by the confluence of the Waterhouse River and Roper Creek, the Roper River rises east of Mataranka ...

Mission. One reason for this was the resettlements and land seizures that nearly annihilated the indigenous population, as they created drastic social change. Another reason was that the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

mission had between 70-200 people at any given times from eight different aboriginal ethnic groups who spoke different native languages. Although adult members of these groups were multilingual because of frequent meetings and ceremonies, the children communicated almost entirely in NTPE, except for close friends and family with whom they would have shared a

home language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

. But NTPE would not have been sufficient for communication so the children naturally expanded the pidgin until in creolized into Australian Kriol. Children from these communities disseminated English features throughout their communities. Although the relations between the missionaries and Aboriginal people were friendly, the missionaries were not responsible for the development of Kriol. In fact, they tried to introduce

Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...

as the official language for the mission, which the Aboriginal children used in class and with the missionaries, but Kriol still flourished. Not all speakers of NTPE would switch over to Australian Kriol though as many after 1908 continued to speak NTPE. Kriol gradually spread and this spread was significantly sped up by policy changes made after

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

as well as changes caused directly by World War 2. This process of creolization entailed a massive increase in the

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

as well as a complexification of the

of the language. When NTPE speaking communities creolized not all NTPE speakers would start speaking Kriol for those in more peripheral parts of the Kriol speaking area their NTPE was heavily influenced by English so when it creolized it became a dialect of

Australian Aboriginal English Australian Aboriginal English (AAE or AbE) is a set of dialects of the English language used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander) population as a result of the colonisation of Aust ...

heavily influenced by Kriol. Kriol was not recognized as a language until the 1970s, as it was regarded as a

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of English. A Kriol

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

began development in 1973, shortly after the Australian Government's announcement of a trilingual education policy in English, Kriol, and Aboriginal languages. Though a small amount of work had been done in 1967 by Mary Harris and Margaret Sharpe their work had not been built on and Kriol Orthography has little influence from their work. From 1973 to 1975 linguists John Sandefur and Sharpe worked on the orthography with only limited involvement from

native speakers A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

of Kriol. By mid 1976 Kriol speakers from a Ngukurr school had become involved in the project, ensuring the orthography would work for both the Bamyili and Ngukurr dialects, as at the time these two dialects were the most known amongst the wider Australian establishment. By November 1976 the orthography was complete and was "launched" with a 4 week Kriol writers course in Bamyili and Ngukurr schools. In her first speech in April 2013, Josie Farrer spoke in Kriol and Gija, marking the first ever use of an

indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigen ...

in the

Western Australian Parliament The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parliament consists of the King (represented by the gov ...

Status

The Kriol language, unlike many other aboriginal languages, is healthy, with most of its speakers under the age of 30. 99% of Kriol speakers are Australian Aboriginals, with only 0.8% being part of other groups. This shows that Kriol is an insider language only used within a community. Kriol speakers mainly use the language orally, with low literacy rates, though there are groups and initiatives working to increase the usage of Kriol literacy and usage in media by teaching Kriol literacy, creating new works in Kriol, and translating preexisting works into Kriol. There are various views and opinions on the Kriol language. Some deny that it is even its own language, simply referring to it as English or insisting those who speak Kriol are just speaking English poorly. Others view the language as a threat because it encroaches on other older aboriginal languages, while some take pride in it and try to support it. Government support for Kriol is limited, with there being only two bilingual language programs in Barunga and Ngukurr; though the one in Barunga has closed, they both successfully included Kriol as both a medium and an object of study. Code switching between Kriol and English as well as between Light and Heavy Kriol is very common with Light Kriol and English being used in more formal situation while Heavy Kriol is used more with other Aboriginals and in less casual situation, similar to the code switching that occurs between more or less formal English.

Decreolization

In Kriol speaking areas that are on the edge of the Kriol speaking region, there has been decreolization with speaking Australian Aboriginal English but with many Kriol features. This happens most often with

mixed race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...

Aboriginal Australians living in larger towns with larger European populations. For a long time, people looked down on their Aboriginal heritage and viewed Kriol as an incorrect form of English that needed to be eradicated. Because of those two factors, their Kriol would transition into English. While the

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

has become less prevalent, the continuous contact with English has meant that in some communities the Aboriginal population can speak Kriol, although Aboriginal English is the main language used with European-descent Australians and others. The other case of decreolization was when people who learned Kriol early in life moved to an area where they never used Kriol so their Kriol would transition into English because they were only exposed to English. The ongoing decreolization is not widespread enough to pose a major threat to Kriol. The birthrate of Kriol speakers is high and decreolization only effects a minority in roughly 6 out of 250 at least partially Kriol speaking communities.

Dialects

Post-creole contiuum

Kriol varies on an Post-creole contiuum of dialects that are more similar to

and those that differ more from it. Dialects less similar to English, referred to as Heavy Kriol, have more words from Australian Aboriginal languages as well as more divergent

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...

and a more divergent

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

. Less divergent dialects, referred to as Light Kriol, have more English suffixes, a less divergent phonology, and more English words as opposed to Aboriginal ones. Light and Heavy kriol also exist on a spectrum with there being many

mesolect A post-creole continuum (or simply creole continuum) is a dialect continuum of varieties of a creole language between those most and least similar to the superstrate language (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted ...

s in between these two. Those who speak Light Kriol tend to be Indigenous Australians who are more assimilated into broader Anglo-Australian Society while Indigenous Australians who speak Heavy Kriol tend to be less assimilated into broader society and tend to speak an Indigenous Australian language as their

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

. Australian Kriol's intelligibility by English speakers varies with Light Kriol being more intelligible than Heavy Kriol, but either way mutual intelligibility is low. While an English speaker might understand the basic gist of what a Kriol speaker is saying they will not be able to interpret specific details.

Geographic dialects

Aside from this acrolectic spectrum Australian Kriol also has geographic dialects. These dialects are made up of larger regional dialects which are further subdivided into local dialects, often based out of a single settlement. The communities of

, Barunga, Fitzroy Valley, Halls Creek, Daly River, Belyuen, Turkey Creek- Wyndham- Kununurra area, Barkley Tableland and possibly those around the Victoria River form their own geographic dialects. With each of these dialects having smaller local dialects, though these are unstudied. The dialects are differentiated by phonology, grammar, and

. As a rule dialects in more populated less isolated areas are more influences by English and are on the Light Kriol side of the post-creole contiuum while those in less populated more isolated areas are on the Heavy Kriol part of the spectrum. The speakers of any particular dialect usually are descended from speakers of a particular indigenous language so the use more words from that specific indigenous language, though these words will be understood by speakers of other dialects but just aren't used. Of the various geographic dialects, those spoken in the Roper River and Barunga area are best documented.

Sociolects

In addition to these to two ways of dividing Australian Kriol it can also be divided into sociolects. The first of these is a form of youth

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

referred to as ''Strit tok'' (street talk) and it is usually considered to be a perversion of "good" Kriol. The second kind is imitation Kriol spoken is called Borunga Kriol and is mostly non Kriol speaking Australians trying to speak Kriol to Kriol speakers. These speakers fall into two categories: Those who are learning Kriol but don't yet speak it so when trying to speak Kriol they end up speaking an "English-Kriol

interlanguage An interlanguage is an idiolect developed by a learner of a second language (L2) which preserves some features of their first language (L1) and can overgeneralize some L2 writing and speaking rules. These two characteristics give an interlangu ...

" and the second kind is people who do not speak Kriol trying to imitate it by speaking an intentionally broken and simplified English, this "Mock Kriol" is not at all Kriol and is rather an incorrect imitation of it.

Creolization

There is also a creole language based on a mix of Kriol and Gurindji called Gurndji Creole, which was formed by pervasive code switching between Kriol and Gurnidji by Gurnidji inhabitants of Victoria River District. There is another Creole language called Light Warlpiri formed by rapid code-switching between Kriol, English, and Warlpiri by the inhabitants of the town of Lajamanu.

Phonology

Austral Kriol also has 7

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

Phonotactics

Australian Kriol phonotactics dictates that

consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...

s at the start of words must be a plosive followed by a liquid, rhotic or glide consonant, the only exception is an alveolar fricative followed by a plosive. Consonant clusters at the end of words are nonexistant except for the clusters /lb/ and /ks/.

Orthography

The Kriol

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

is based on the

English alphabet Modern English is written with a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 Letter (alphabet), letters, with each having both uppercase and lowercase forms. The word ''alphabet'' is a Compound (linguistics), compound of ''alpha'' and ''beta'', t ...

, but varies not only in what letters and digraphs are used, but also in the rules for said letters and digraphs. Each

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

in Kriol can only be spelled one way, unlike in

English orthography English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, allowing readers and writers to associate written graphemes with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. English's orthograp ...

, where several different spellings can be used to make the same sound. Kriol, unlike English, also uses a phonetic orthography in which words are spelled to match how they sound. The Kriol alphabet contains 21 letters, 11

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

digraphs, 5

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

digraphs and 5

punctuation marks Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisti ...

. Letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, Q, R, S, T, U, W, Y Consonant Digraphs: Ly, Ng, Ny, Rd, Rl, Rn, Rr, Rt, Sh, Th, Tj Vowel Digraphs: Ai, Au, Ei, Oi, Ou Punctuation Marks: Period (.),

Comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...

(,),

Question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History The history of the question mark is ...

(?),

Exclamation mark The exclamation mark (also known as exclamation point in American English) is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show wikt:emphasis, emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks ...

(!),

Quotation mark Quotation marks are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the sam ...

s (" ")

Morphology and syntax

As a general rule, the grammar of Kriol is a simplified version of that found in English, meaning that it is analytic, with words generally having only one form and additional meaning derived not from changing words but from

and added new words.

Parts of speech

The parts of speech which Australian Kriol has are:

verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

s, modals, tense markers,

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

demonstrative Demonstratives (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning ...

s, quantifiers, articles, plural markers,

prepositions Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...

, and

particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...

Pronouns

Kriol

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...

differentiate between different between first,

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and third person, as well as between singular,

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

, and dual plural inclusive and exclusive pronouns first person. The language also differentiates between subject,

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

, independent pronoun, and adnominal

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...

. There are also reflexive and

reciprocal pronoun A reciprocal pronoun is a pronoun that indicates a reciprocal relationship. A reciprocal pronoun can be used for one of the participants of a reciprocal construction, i.e. a clause in which two participants are in a mutual relationship. The recip ...

Demonstratives

Suffixes

Various types of words in Kriol have one or more

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

es associated with them with certain suffixes being used for several different types of words. In Australian Kriol, many spatial words from English have been transformed into suffixes attached to verbs they interact with. The specific suffixes vary between dialects but remain mostly similar. These spacial suffixes and the non spacial suffixes can be combined in words like ''pikimap'' (pick up) which contains the suffixes ''im'' and ''ap.''

Word order

Kriol uses an

SVO word order SVO may refer to: * Association football clubs in Germany: ** SVO Germaringen ** SV Oberachern * Silver vanadium oxide battery (SVO battery) * San Jose Chamber of Commerce, a chamber of commerce in San Jose, California, United States, known as th ...

exclusively. In Kriol the order of possessor and possessum varies, with it being evenly split between possessor possessum and possessum possessor. In Kriol word order is evenly split between verb object adverb and Adverb verb object. Word order is used over

inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...

s or subject object

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...

ation or verbs to specify meaning.

Reduplication

In Kriol, reduplication can be used both on the root of a verb and on the entire verb to make the verb a progressive verb.

Lexicon

The primary contributing language of Kriol is English, but it has received and continues to receive influence from

Chinese Pidgin English Chinese Pidgin English (also called Chinese Coastal English or Pigeon English) was a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese substratum. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin Englis ...

, Alawa, Marra, Ngalakgan, Wandarrang, Mangarrayi, Ngandi, Nunggubuyu, Jawoyn, Dalabon, Rembarrnga, Barunga, Jaminjung, Ngarinyman, Wardaman, Walmatjari, Djaru, Miriwoong, and Gija. There are a significant number of loanwords from Australian Aboriginal languages in Australian Kriol. These words most frequently come from semantic domains which were of particular significance to Aboriginal Australians such as

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil ...

, and

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

or were primarily discussed among the family and language group such as familial terms. Examples of these include the words ''lambarra'' (father in law), ''corroboree'' (

sacred dance Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious Ceremony, ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some religions; for exa ...

), and ''jaojao'' (

water lily Water lily or water lilies may refer to: Plants * Members of the family Nymphaeaceae Nymphaeaceae () is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate climate, temperate ...

stalk). New words have often been coined to fill lexical gaps instead of borrowing from Aboriginal languages. For example the Kriol word ''mailawik'' comes from the English word ''week'' and the Aboriginal

morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

''maila'' (poor), and thus literally means "poor week''".'' It was used to refer to the week in the fortnightly payment system in which the employee would not be paid, which is referred to "off pay week" in

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

. Words were also sometimes semantically changed or expanded to fill new meanings.

Media

Many famous pieces of media such

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and

Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing ...

have been translated into Kriol, and many books have been published in Kriol. ABC and several other organizations currently make news in Kriol. Online there are several videos and texts available in Kriol, as well as resources for learning the language. There is also an Australian Kriol Wikipedia currently on the Wikimedia Incubator.

Bible translation

On 5 May 2007, the first complete edition of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

in the Kriol language was launched at

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

in the Northern Territory. Translation took over 29 years. It was undertaken by a team of native Kriol speakers led by Rev. Canon Gumbuli Wurrumara and specialists from the Society for Australian Indigenous Languages. The Kriol Bible is the first complete edition of the Bible in any Indigenous Australian language. The publication was a joint venture of The Bible Society, Lutheran Bible Translators, The Church Missionary Society, the

Anglican church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Australian Society of Indigenous Languages.Carroll, Peter J. 2004. From the beginning to Proverbs. ''The Bible Translator'' 55.4: 491–497.

Sample text

Notes

References

* Harris, John (1993) "Losing and gaining a language: the story of Kriol in the Northern Territory" in Walsh, M and Yallop, C (eds), ''Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia'', Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

External links

Meigim Kriol Strongbala
Bilingual Kriol-English website providing news and information on Kriol.
Ngukurr Community
site for the main Aboriginal Community producing Kriol language materials.
Kriol language resources

Retrieved 25 December 2014. *
The Kriol Bible, full text
Retrieved 13 January 2020. * Kriol materials from the Barunga bilingual program at th
Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages

Roper Gulf Regional Council
Retrieved 25 December 2014. {{Authority control English-based pidgins and creoles of Australia Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory Subject–verb–object languages Languages attested from the 1900s Pidgins and creoles of Australia Non-Pama-Nyungan languages Indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia Indigenous Australian languages in Queensland