Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Language
E
nglish
is the of
cial language of Belize and naturally enough it's spoken
everywhere. However, it's really the first language of only a small percentage
of Belize's population, since seven main languages are spoken here,
including the Mopan, Yucatec and Kekchí Maya dialects. For at least half the
population, mainly the mestizos in the north and the west, Spanish is the
language spoken at home and in the workplace. The last thirty years have
seen a large increase in spoken Spanish due to immigration from
neighbouring countries. If you plan to cross the border into Guatemala to
visit Tikal, some Spanish
will be essential.
The first language of one third of the population - mainly the Creole people - is
Kriol
(the modern favoured spelling, though still often spelt “Creole”), a language partly
derived from English and similar to the languages spoken in other parts of the
Caribbean colonized by the British. Kriol is the
most widely spoken
language in
Belize. English and Kriol are the languages used in public or o
cial situations and
for speaking to outsiders. That said, listening to conversations can be confusing, as
people switch from, say, English to Kriol to Spanish to Garifuna and back - often in
the same sentence.
Many
Garifuna
continue to speak their own tongue as their first language, although
the only village where
everyone
does this is Hopkins (see p.187). The
Mennonites
add to the linguistic cocktail with their old form of High German, and the jigsaw
puzzle is completed by recent immigrants from Asia speaking Chinese and
South Asian languages.
Kriol
Kriol
is the
lingua franca
of Belize: whether someone's first language is Maya, Spanish,
Garifuna or English, they'll almost always be able to communicate in Kriol. It may
sound like English from a distance and as you listen to a few words you'll think that
their meaning is clear, but as things proceed you'll soon realize that complete
comprehension is out of reach - though those familiar with other English dialects may
find understanding easier. It's a beautifully warm, expressive and relaxed language,
typically Caribbean, with a vocabulary loosely based on English but with significant
differences in pronunciation and a grammatical structure that is distinctly West African
in origin. One characteristic is the heavy nasalization of some vowels, for example
waahn
(want) and
frahn
(from).
Written
Kriol, which you'll see in some newspaper columns and booklets, is a little
easier to come to grips with, though you'll need to study it hard at first. A dictionary is
available from some bookstores (Paul Crosbie, editor,
Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri
,
2007),
which also explains the grammar, though Kriol will always be much more of a spoken
language than a written one.
Only in recent years has Kriol begun to be
recognized
as a distinct language, though
there is still much debate as to whether it is just a dialect of English. In
colonial times
Kriol was not accepted as a legitimate language and its use was prohibited in schools,
although in practice teachers often lapsed into it. But Kriol always remained the
language of the people at home and at work, an integral part of culture and identity.
Independence
brought a growing pride in the language and today a movement is
formalizing Kriol, aiming to recognize it as one of Belize's national languages.
