Understanding the Krio Language & Providing Professional Krio Interpreters and Translators
Global Interpreting understands the importance of working in the Krio language. For over 10 years, Global Interpreting has worked with the Krio language as well as hundreds of other from around the word. We are a one stop full language service provider. Offering Over the Phone, Video Remote, Face to Face, Transcription, Document and Website Translation in 150 languages including American Sign Language (ASL) nation and worldwide.
Sierra Leone Krio is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population and unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people or Krios, (a community of about 300,000 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, United States and Britain), but it is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, while Krio, despite its common use throughout the country, has no official status.
The Krio language is an offshoot of the language brought by the Nova Scotian Settlers from North America and the numerous liberated Yoruba slaves who settled in Sierra Leone.
The vocabulary of Krio is derived primarily from English, while its sound system, grammar and sentence structure are heavily influenced by at least 12 African languages, including aspects of the Yoruba language of Nigeria. Krio's standard greeting, kushe, for instance, is derived from the Yoruba greeting è kú işé ("greetings on your work"); the krio word "pan", meaning (on top of/doing something), descends directly from the Jamaican patois word "pon", meaning the same thing; the krio expression "chaka-chaka", meaning (messy/untidy), also descends from Jamaican patois. This is due to the fact that some of the freed slaves were from the West Indies, and in particular Jamaica (Jamaican Maroons).
Sierra Leone Krio is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population and unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people or Krios, (a community of about 300,000 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, United States and Britain), but it is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, while Krio, despite its common use throughout the country, has no official status.
The Krio language is an offshoot of the language brought by the Nova Scotian Settlers from North America and the numerous liberated Yoruba slaves who settled in Sierra Leone.
The vocabulary of Krio is derived primarily from English, while its sound system, grammar and sentence structure are heavily influenced by at least 12 African languages, including aspects of the Yoruba language of Nigeria. Krio's standard greeting, kushe, for instance, is derived from the Yoruba greeting è kú işé ("greetings on your work"); the krio word "pan", meaning (on top of/doing something), descends directly from the Jamaican patois word "pon", meaning the same thing; the krio expression "chaka-chaka", meaning (messy/untidy), also descends from Jamaican patois. This is due to the fact that some of the freed slaves were from the West Indies, and in particular Jamaica (Jamaican Maroons).
Krio speakers abroad
The Creole people acted as traders and missionaries in other parts of West Africa during the 19th century, and as a result there are also Krio-speaking communities in The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.[3] As a result of Sierra Leone Creole migratory patterns, in the Gambia the Creole or Aku community speak the Aku language that is very similar to Krio. A small number of liberated Africans returned to the land of their origins, such as the Saros of Nigeria who not only took their Western names with them but also krio words like sabi and na which were installed in to Nigerian Pidgin English.
Who are You Going to Trust with Vital Krio Language Needs?
The Krio language is an important language worldwide. It is vital to understand the general nature and specific idiosyncrasies of Krio. For over 10 years Global Interpreting has provided outstanding Krio translators, over the phone, face to face and conference interpreters nation and worldwide.