Australian Kriol
Australian Kriol, also known as Roper River Kriol, Fitzroy Valley Kriol, Australian Creole, Northern Australian Creole or Aboriginal English, is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it was spoken by groups further 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 people and other Asian groups, and the Aboriginal Australians in the northern regions has maintained a vibrant use of the language, which is spoken by about 30,000 people. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and grammar. It is a language in its own right and is distinct from Torres Strait Creole.
History
The first records of the progenitor to Kriol, a pidgin called Port Jackson Pidgin English, are found from the 1780s, with the pidgin being used for communication between the white settlers around Port Jackson and the local indigenous population. During that period, relations between the native Australians and Europeans were strained and often violent. 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.European settlement in the Northern Territory was attempted over a period of about forty years. Settlement finally succeeded in 1870 with the founding of Darwin, and an influx of English and Chinese speakers followed. To communicate between these two groups and the local Aboriginal people, many pidgins developed throughout the territory based on PJPE. By 1900, PJPE had developed into Northern Territory Pidgin English, which was widespread and well understood.
Then, by 1908, NTPE would creolise into Australian Kriol, starting first in the Roper River Mission. One reason for this was the resettlements and land seizures that nearly annihilated the indigenous population, as they created drastic social change. Another reason was that the Anglican mission had between 70–200 people at any given times from eight different aboriginal ethnic groups who spoke different native languages. Although adult members of these groups were multilingual because of frequent meetings and ceremonies, the children communicated almost entirely in NTPE, except for close friends and family with whom they would have shared a home language. But NTPE would not have been sufficient for communication so the children naturally expanded the pidgin until it creolised into Australian Kriol. Children from these communities disseminated English features throughout their communities. Although the relations between the missionaries and Aboriginal people were friendly, the missionaries were not responsible for the development of Kriol. In fact, they tried to introduce Standard English as the official language for the mission, which the Aboriginal children used in class and with the missionaries, but Kriol still flourished.
Not all speakers of NTPE would switch over to Australian Kriol though as many after 1908 continued to speak NTPE. Kriol gradually spread and this spread was significantly sped up by policy changes made after World War 2 as well as changes caused directly by World War 2. This process of creolisation entailed a massive increase in the lexicon as well as a complexification of the grammar of the language. When NTPE speaking communities creolised not all NTPE speakers would start speaking Kriol for those in more peripheral parts of the Kriol speaking area their NTPE was heavily influenced by English so when it creolised it became a dialect of Australian Aboriginal English heavily influenced by Kriol.
Kriol was not recognised as a language until the 1970s, as it was regarded as a dialect of English.
A Kriol orthography began development in 1973, shortly after the Australian Government's announcement of an education policy using English, Kriol, and Aboriginal languages. Though a small amount of work had been done in 1967 by Mary Harris and Margaret Sharpe, their work had not been built on, and Kriol orthography has little influence from their work. From 1973 to 1975 linguists John Sandefur and Sharpe worked on the orthography with only limited involvement from native speakers of Kriol. By mid 1976 Kriol speakers from a Ngukurr school had become involved in the project, ensuring the orthography would work for both the Bamyili and Ngukurr dialects, as at the time these two dialects were the most known amongst the wider Australian establishment. By November 1976 the orthography was complete and was launched with a four-week Kriol writers’ course in Bamyili and Ngukurr schools.
In her first speech in April 2013, Josie Farrer spoke in Kriol and Gija, marking the first ever use of an indigenous language in the Western Australian Parliament.
Status
The Kriol language, unlike many other Aboriginal languages, remains healthy, with most of its speakers under 30 years old. About 99% of Kriol speakers are Australian Aboriginals, while only 0.8% belong to other groups, indicating that Kriol functions primarily as an in-group language. While Kriol is predominantly spoken rather than written, with generally low literacy rates among its speakers, various organisations and initiatives are working to promote Kriol literacy and media presence through education, original content creation and translations of existing works.Views on the Kriol language vary widely. Some dispute its status as a distinct language, dismissing it as either English or poorly spoken English. Others see it as a threat to traditional Aboriginal languages, while many embrace and actively support it. Government support remains limited, with only two bilingual programs ever established; those being in Barunga and Ngukurr. Although the Barunga program has since closed, both programs successfully incorporated Kriol as both a teaching medium and a subject of study.
Code switching between Kriol and English, as well as between Light and Heavy Kriol, is common practice. Light Kriol and English are typically used in formal settings, while Heavy Kriol is preferred among Aboriginal people and in casual situations, similar to how speakers switch between formal and informal English.
Decreolisation
In areas bordering Kriol-speaking regions, a process of decreolisation has occurred, with speakers shifting toward Australian Aboriginal English while retaining some Kriol features. This trend is most noticeable among mixed-race Aboriginal Australians living in larger towns with significant European populations. Historically, widespread discrimination led many to suppress their Aboriginal heritage and view Kriol as incorrect English that needed to be eliminated. These factors, combined with constant exposure to English, led to a gradual language shift. While racism has diminished, continued contact with English means that in some communities, although the Aboriginal population can speak Kriol, Aboriginal English remains the primary language for interaction with European-descent Australians and others.Another form of decreolisation occurs when early Kriol speakers relocate to areas where Kriol is not used. Without regular exposure to Kriol and surrounded by English speakers, their language would shift toward English.
However, the extent of decreolisation poses no significant threat to Kriol. With a high birthrate among Kriol speakers and decreolisation affecting only a small minority in approximately 6 out of 250 Kriol-speaking communities, the language maintains its vitality.
Dialects
Post-creole continuum
Kriol exists along a post-creole continuum, with dialects ranging from those closer to Australian Aboriginal English to those more distinct from it. Heavy Kriol, which differs more substantially from English, incorporates more words from Australian Aboriginal languages and features more divergent word order and phonology. Light Kriol, on the other hand, maintains more English-like characteristics, including English suffixes, similar phonology and a higher proportion of English vocabulary. Between these two extremes lies a spectrum of mesolects, representing varying degrees of difference from standard English.| Heavy Kriol | Light Kriol | English |
| gabarra | hed | head |
| gula | graul | growl/tell off |
| dirwu | daib | dive |
| hojij | hosis | horses |
The choice between Light and Heavy Kriol often reflects speakers' level of integration into mainstream Anglo-Australian society. Indigenous Australians who are more integrated into broader society typically use Light Kriol, while those who maintain stronger traditional ties and often speak an Indigenous Australian language as their first language tend to use Heavy Kriol.
Mutual intelligibility between Kriol and English is limited, though it varies depending on the dialect. While Light Kriol is more comprehensible to English speakers than Heavy Kriol, even then understanding is superficial. English speakers may grasp the general meaning of Kriol speech but struggle to understand specific details.
Geographic dialects
Aside from this acrolectic spectrum, Australian Kriol encompasses several geographic dialects, organised in a hierarchy of regional and local variations. Major regional dialects are centred around Roper River, Barunga, Fitzroy Valley, Halls Creek, Daly River, Belyuen, Turkey Creek-Wyndham-Kununurra area and the Barkly Tableland, with possible distinct dialects around the Victoria River. Each regional dialect further subdivides into local dialects, typically associated with individual settlements, though these smaller variations remain largely unstudied.These dialects differ in their phonology, grammar and lexicon. A general pattern emerges: dialects in more populated, accessible areas tend toward Light Kriol, showing stronger English influence, while those in more isolated, less populated regions typically align with Heavy Kriol. Each dialect community usually descends from speakers of a particular Indigenous language, leading to the incorporation of vocabulary from that language. While speakers of other dialects can understand these distinct vocabulary items, they typically do not use them themselves.
Among these geographic variations, the dialects of the Roper River and Barunga regions have received the most thorough documentation and study.