Jamaican Patois Translated
By deshoda • Jan 19th, 2008 • Category: Jamaica Patois bodderashun
By Simone Hudson
wah mek dem haffi chobble wi likkle twang?
mek dem nuh tek dem propa inglish an galang?
nuh everybady mek fi chat inglish lakka di queen
nuh everybady mek fi play golf pon put-put green
wah mek di whola wi haffi roun up wi mout
lakka seh wi deh nyaam whola trout?
lawd! mi cyaan tek dem deh sorta bodderashun!
jus undastan di patois an mek wi tan!
cho!…
Ah our beautiful creole, Patois (pat wa). I don’t think English can truly express the deep emotions of our people. When we are really passionate about something “wi draw fi di the patwa”(we speak Patois). Patois is Jamaican creole and it is a hybrid of the African and the English language, essentially resulting from slavery. Slaves and indentured workers brought to the island, carried with them their native tongue and, mixed with the language of the colonizers resulted in the hybrid Patois. Patois has been made popular world wide by persons such as Miss Lou, various Reggae and Dancehall artistes.
Here are some basic Patois to English translations:
| Patois | English | Sentence |
| mi | me, I | mi waan go (I want to go) |
| yuh | you | yuh nuh hear? (don’t you hear?) |
| dem | them, they, forms all plurals | call dem (call them)car dem (the cars) |
| wi | we | wi want justice (we want justice) |
| cyan | can’t | mi cyan bodda (I cant be bothered) |
| deh | there | go out deh (go out there) |
| a go | am going to | mi ago a dung deh ( I am going down there) |
| a fi | its for | a fe him own (it is his) |
| outta doh | outside | go outa doh nuh (go outside) |
| inna | in | she inna di house (she is in the house) |
| madda | mother | mi madda a call yuh (my mother is calling you) |
| fada | father | mi fada a go come now (my father is on his way) |
| pickney | child | pickney stop nuh (child, stop) |
| mek | make | mek me se’t (let me see it) |
| di | the | di man cyan come now (the man cannot ocme now) |
Click below for pronunciations
deshoda is Sadly, I am seen as something of a simpleton with sacks of simple, sordid suggestions and statements. The stigma served to me is something short of spectacular and somewhat stimulating. I shall be stoic and shrug off all stultification and stand solid, sustaining my simple speech so as to stay sincere to self. Someone sufficiently smart to substantiate something somewhat substandard should not speak sparingly. This sojourn into my subconscious is meant specifically to sensitize the segregated segment of society specified by their synthesis. In summation i am simply scripting this synopsis to show how splendid it is to scribble seemingly shoddy shite.
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