KRIOL DICTIONARY INTRODUCED

October 31, 2007

The National Creole Council today launched the first Creole English Dictionary. One of the prime projects of the Belize Creole Project, the dictionary will play an important roll in recognizing Creole as an official language. Minister of Education and Culture, Francis Fonseca says that this project means a lot to his ministry and they will continue to support this initiative. 

Hon. Francis Fonseca,Minister of Education and Culture:

“The Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Culture and History tells use that it was very important for us to get involved in this initiative because of the importance of this Kriol English Dictionary to Belizean culture and also to our educational system. So we view it as an important tool for our education system, for our teachers, for our students, for families, but we also view it as an important tool for enhancing culture, preserving culture and documenting culture and growing and developing the Creole culture because as you know, culture finds its expression through language and so why we talk Creole and we talk Creole quite easily, we don’t have an official Creole-English Dictionary, and so as the governor general pointed out, this is something that he’s been talking about for 35 years and we’re very glad that we’re finally able to give our full support to it and get it done today. We’re going to continue to support this initiative as well as support other important initiatives in culture.” 

Minister Fonseca spoke of some of the other initiatives that they will be working on as a ministry. 

Hon. Francis Fonseca,Minister of Education and Culture:

“Next week right here at the House of Culture, we’ll be having the launching of the African and Mayan History book for secondary schools. We already have the books for primary school that’s already in the school system and next week we’ll be introducing to the secondary schools system for African and Mayan History which is very important. On November 16^th, we’ll be having the official presentation of Andy Palacio, a global figure now and the entire world will be here to see that presentation in Baranco where he will be designated officially as a United Nations artist for peace. It’s a very prestigious award for the people of Belize and for Andy Palacio, so we’re very proud of him. And then we’re also working on a very important initiative along with the UNIA and the UBAD educational fund to restore, reopen and really reenergize the Liberty Hall on Barrack Road. That has been in limbo for many, many years and we’ve finally taken the bull by the horns and we’re working with those organizations in a collaborative effort to get Liberty Hall open for the people of Belize.” 

Meanwhile the President of the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), Yasser Musa also pledge their continued support for this project. 

Yasser Musa,President of the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH):

“The publication of such an important book, speaks to the thirst that people have for more information, for knowledge and for the utilization of this knowledge. I congratulated and I take this chance on the media to congratulate the National Creole Council, Sylvanna, Mirna and all of them, for their hard work and dedication, but as you said in your statement, it’s not the end with this book; it’s how now we translate it and how we can get the kids to use it and I think that that’s the big challenge in front of us and we at NICH embrace this challenge, we will take on this challenge and we will work with the National Creole Council and the Ministry of Education to see that this happens. I think like anything else we need to be very orderly and we need to find a proper structure that we can negotiate and collaborate with the Ministry of Education to see how we can fit it into a curriculum that is already very dense, but I think that the many times I’ve listened to Sylvanna, this has to be integrated into the curriculum. So it’s not something that you add on because when you say that you’re adding something on, the teachers get kinda flustered. The point is to use it as a tool to teach the kids better so that they can learn. So I think the area of language, the Ministry of Education, the Creole Council and NICH, we have to come together and sort this out.” 

Sylvanna Woods, Secretary of the Belize Creole Project tells us a little bit more about what can be found in the dictionary. 

Sylvanna Woods, Secretary of the Belize Creole Project:

“About ten years of work are in this dictionary. This dictionary will give you the part of speech, a sample sentence in creole, the translation in English, the different senses of the word as well as the etymology, where the word originated from. So for example a world like ‘dead’, dead doesn’t just mean without life, as a person it means ‘Dey di bawl dead.’ So you get different senses of the word, and the best thing that people get in the previews is the sample sentence because you actually use the word. The dictionary itself is quite thick with over 470 plus pages and, and the whole idea with this first set up, is that this first edition is to get feedback to improve it even more for a second edition.” 

According to members of the Creole council, the first 1 thousand copies of the dictionary were printed by the Ministry of Education and Culture along with NICH. 540 of these will be delivered to schools and libraries countrywide along with media and production houses. 

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