Giant Bałwany and an African Language

There is an interesting post by Pan Steeva over at Mwo-Whoov about simplified English spelling and the simplified LOJIKON system.

I have to admit that when I first started learning Polish a year ago I used to suggest to Polish people that they might like to try a simplified alphabet to make the country more appealing to investors, visitors and people learning the language. I think the kicker was hearing a friend of a friend describing his visit to the city of Wrocław or “Rock Law” as he called it.  Something about his pronunciation made it sound like a foul smelling treatment for crow’s feet.

I had the chance to visit Sierra Leone twice in 2006 and 2007 in the course of my work when I was secretary and then a trustee (briefly) for the Waterloo Development Partnership, now the Construction and Development Partnership (CODEP, building an innovative learning and literacy centre in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. The charity is still chaired by my old boss Claire Curtis-Thomas and I urge you to check out the charity's website to learn more and donate if its objectives strike a chord. It's a fantastic organisation.

The trip was an eye-opener in many respects and I feel privileged to have gone at a young age to such an extraordinary country. Sierra Leone is utterly beautiful and dynamic in a way that only African nations seem to be. The people were kind, gentle and friendly, and it was hard to remind yourself that that universal friendliness and vitality had, only a few years before, been swept away by a great hatred that resulted in one of the most vicious civil wars in living memory.

The reason I mention this is because back in London I met a few Sierra Leoneans and ended up learning Krio from my friend Sara, a teacher of children in the UK. Krio, a type of Creole,  is the language that the slaves repatriated to Africa from the UK after the abolition of slavery used on their return to Africa. The Krio became the dominant tribe in Sierra Leone and the language is now the lingua franca used in Sierra Leone by over 90% of the population in a country where there are dozens of tribal languages.

What’s extraordinary about Krio is that it’s an 18^th Century sailor’s English, clearly learnt by the then slaves who spent so long being transported on English ships, that has mutated and taken in local tribal languages and been simplified for ease of use. When I was there I was able to follow the majority of conversations even when it’s spoken at rapid fire pace. It’s like finding an form of British English spoken centuries ago encased in linguistic amber. Some examples:

Bohl – bowl

Dia – (dear)  Expensive

Pe – pay

Khostahment  - customer

Titti – girl (I don’t think I need to point out the etymology of this word!)

Swit mot (sweet mouth) being persuasive

Warawere (which I imagine is a corruption of “ware” used to notify the ships’ crew of other ships) meaning suddenly

Padi – friend

Ober yanda – over there (yonder being an English word for there now considered rural and agricultural)

Bost (boast) show off

I got to a reasonable level and still can speak a bit but practicing Krio in Warsaw might be a bit of a stretch. There’s a documentary here with some examples of speakers and a bit more history. The reason why I mention this is because it seems to me a strong argument of the usefulness of a simplified spelling and grammar structure in English as a means of spreading the language and making it easier to learn as a second language. Krio's flexibility is its greatest strength, just like English's ability to absorb new words is one the main reasons it's now so common (along with a strong serving of military and cultural imperialism of course).

In the long run I wonder if the discussion on a simplified English might be academic in twenty years or so, when simultaneous translation devices might dispense with the need to learn languages at all. I hope not, I’d be out of a job for one thing!

I leave you with a picture of a 10 metre bałwan that someone has recently made in Poland. And I thought I had too much time on my hands. Speaks volumes about Polish industriousness though. This is definitely not something you'd find in Sierra Leone!