Australian Kriol language
| Kriol | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Roper River, Katherine areas, Ngukurr, Northern Territory; Kimberley region of Western Australia; Gulf Country, Lower Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
|
Native speakers
|
4,200 (2006 census) L2 speakers: 10,000 (1991) |
|
English Creole
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | krio1252 |
| AIATSIS | P1* |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-ca (varieties: |
Kriol is an Australian creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it moved west and north. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country except in the Northern Territory, where the contact between European settlers, Chinese and other Asians and the indigenous people in the northern regions of Australia has maintained a vibrant use of the language, spoken by about 30,000 people. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and grammar and so is a language in its own right.
European settlement in the Northern Territory was attempted over a period of about forty years. Settlement finally succeeded in 1870, and an influx of both English and Chinese speakers followed. In order to communicate between these two groups and the local Aboriginal people, pidgins developed throughout the territory based on Port Jackson Pidgin English. By 1900, Northern Territory Pidgin English (NTPE) was widespread and well understood.
It creolised first in the Roper River Mission (Ngukurr), where cattle stations were established and a township developed.
During this period, the relations between the native and European peoples were strained. 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.
The resettlements and land seizures nearly annihilated the indigenous population and also provided one major factor in the development of the creole: drastic social change accompanied by severe communication difficulties.
The second requirement for the development of the creole was a new community, which came about when Anglican missionaries set up a refuge in the Roper River region in 1908. This brought together around 200 people from 8 different aboriginal ethnic groups, who spoke different native languages. Although the adults were multilingual because of frequent meetings and ceremonies, the children had yet to acquire their native language skills and so used the only common language they had: the NTPE. In their lifetime, these children were almost totally responsible for developing the pidgin into a full language.
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Wikipedia