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Although English is the official language of Jamaica, having won
its independence from Great Britain in 1962, many people, especially those
living in the Jamaican countryside speak a dialect which is very difficult
to understand even if you’re a native speaker of English. One aspect
of Jamaican patois that I’ve come to realize is that many speakers
do not use the past tense of verbs with consistency. Most verbs seem e
embassy." As an ESL instructor who is constantly assisting international
stto stay in the present tense. Then how do we know "when" something
happened or will happen, you may ask. The main indicator of "time"
is distinguished by "time" words such as yesterday or last week.
For example, "The other day the boy, Tony, tell me say him a go a
embassy." From the usage of "the other day" we know that
the action is in the past. You can probably translate this sentence yourself
as, "The other day the boy, Tony, told me that he went to thudents
to be more consistent in their use of the past tense, it’s hard to
get used to listening to patois. I’ll discuss more patois grammar
later, but for now here’s a few words and phrases to whet your appetite
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yah mon — You can hear this phrase in every conversation.
It means "yes" or "right on"
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What a gwaan? — What’s going on?
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gwaan — go on. Ex: Better you gwaan from here.
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vex — angry. Ex: That guy made me get vex.
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yard — Jamaica or your home town. Ex: Me wan go back
a mi yard. = I want to go home.
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Nuttin’ nah go right — nothing’s going on in
the right way.
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Kati Roberson-Munroe is an English as a Second Language instructor who is
also fluent in Spanish and Japanese. Her marriage to a Jamaican songwriter and
a 20-year love of Reggae have inspired her study of Jamaican patois. She’ll
share some of her insights in this column every issue. Yah mon, let’s study
Patois.
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