By Charles Gladden

BELMOPAN, Wed. Aug. 20, 2025

Those who sometimes are not sure how to spell certain Kriol words will find it easier to confirm the correct spelling through a quick consultation of Belize’s Kriol Dictionary, which has been converted into a mobile app that features the meaning, proper spelling and inflection of various Kriol words.

“Wi di kip up wid di tyms. There’s an app fu everything nowadays, and so finally fu have wahn app eena di paam ah yo hand. It’s exciting for all of us,” said Andrea Rodriguez, member of the Kriol language committee of the National Kriol Council.

“It’s pretty much like having the dictionary in your hands. You could carry it anywhere without having the bulkiness and weight of a paperback. It’s straightforward, no lot of fluff to it, and if you don’t know a word eena Kriol, like how to spell it eena Kriol, you could click on the English tab and it’ll show you the words in English with the Creole right underneath it,” Rodriguez explained.

She went on to say, “You click on ‘about’.  It gives you all the different words for how you could say ‘about’ in Kriol. You have ‘bout—mek ah tell yu bout weh hapm’, and it gives you a sentence in Kriol and English. So, this is a good way also to teach yourself Kriol, because you could look at how they put sentences together.”

The app’s development has been in the pipeline at the National Kriol Council for some time, but SIL Global later assisted in the app’s development.

“The app is for everybody interested in learning Kriol; especially for people, I think, weh wahn learn the standardized version of Kriol. So, this is the one easy way to get the language again at your fingertips and teach yourself,” Rodriguez mentioned.

The app is currently available for Android users. It is not yet available for Apple users who are interested in downloading the app.