The 50 Words project by the University of Melbourne aims to share 50 words in local languages around Australia to give schools and the general public a resource and window into what the rich and diverse original languages of Australia sound like. Dozens of languages have been added and can all be found and heard through the project’s interactive map: https://50words.online/.

This month, Kriol has been added to the 50 Words database! Thanks to Josie Lardy from Jilkminggan, you can now go read and listen to a handy set of 50 Kriol words. It’s a great introduction for anyone starting to learn Kriol and/or learn the Kriol spelling system. Josie shares basic words, some of which you can see and hear are similar to English, like ni (knee) and wada (water) and others that aren’t so similar like yuwai (yes) and gabarra (head). There are some handy phrases too, like wani na – a greeting that works a bit like ‘hello’ – and gaman iya (come here).

Josie and the 50 Words website are careful to point out that this collection of 50 Words is “Jilkminggan wei” or, how people in the community of Jilkminggan (about 30km east of Mataranka) speak. Kriol can be quite different depending on which community you’re in so it’s good to remember that everywhere you go in the Kriol speaking world, some words might stay the same and some might be different.

Have a look for yourself and check out 50 Words in Kriol – Jilkminggan wei! – https://50words.online/

Want to read this post in Kriol?
Click the ‘Kriol’ button above to visit the Kriol version of this website.