Standardizing Krio

Writing Krio is one way of standardizing the language so that anybody who wishes to read it comes to it with a certain amount of expectation. Many people have tried to write Krio and each one has devised his own style, usually based on his knowledge of English and this has led to a state of confusion. So, it is much better to standardize the writing of the language.

A lot of people recognized quite early on that Krio was different from English. It was not a form of broken English. It was a distinct way of expression by a certain group of people and they had tried to express this in writing. And they were not all Krios who were doing this. There were Englishmen who came to Sierra Leone, heard the language and were attracted to it and tried to write it. But they wrote in the only style that they knew – that was the English Language.

If a person wants to write something in Krio and only knows English, he is trying to express himself within the limitations of his knowledge. This means that a hundred people would write in a hundred different styles. This makes for a state of confusion. So, it’s much better to have a standard to which we all conform.

Excerpt from Preface to Rid Ɛn Rayt Krio Facebook Page by Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones