Australian Kriol | |
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Native to | Australia |
Region | Roper River, Katherine areas, Ngukurr, Northern Territory; Kimberley, Western Australia; Gulf Country, Lower Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
Ethnicity | Aboriginal Australians |
Native speakers | 7,500 (2021 census)[1] L2 speakers: 10,000 (1991)[2] |
English Creole
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Early forms | |
Dialects |
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Kriol Alphabet based off of English Alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | rop |
Glottolog | krio1252 |
AIATSIS[3] | P1 |
Linguasphere | 52-ABB-ca (varieties: 52-ABB-caa to -caf |
Australian Kriol also known as Roper River Kriol, Fitzroy Valley Kriol, Northern Australian Creole or Aboriginal English[4] 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.