Phonology
Kriol shares similarities with many Caribbean English Creoles as far as phonology and spelling are concerned. Also, many of its words and structures are both lexically and phonologically similar to English, its superstrate language.
Phonologically, Belizean Kriol is a perfect example of creole languages in the Caribbean and, partly, everywhere else. 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 Kriol is no exception in this point. Unlike most creoles, Kriol has a standardized orthography.
| Vowel | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| /ei/ | /beik/ | 'bake' |
| /i/ | /ɡi, ɡiv/ | 'give' |
| /a & aa / | /la(a)nɡ/ | 'long' |
| /uu/ | /boot/ | 'booth' |
| /ii/ | /teef/ | 'steal' |
| /ai/ | /bwai/ | 'boy' |
| /oa/ | /coal/ | 'cold' |
| /o/ | /don/ | 'done' |
| /au/ | /bout/ | 'about' |
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 Kriol, 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 /ɡ/ and /k/. Sometimes they also palatalize alveolar consonants, such as /t/, /d/, and /n/.
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 /r/ 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 (/θ/ /ð/), Belizean Kriol does not use them. It rather employs the alveolars /t/ and /d/. 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. /bwai/ or /bwoi/ (boy) becomes /boi/, /anɡri/ (angry) becomes /ænɡri/ and so on.
Read more about this topic: Belizean Creole