Catchy Dialect - Feature Story (Print Version)

By: Symphony Griffith

City of Bridgetown (Photo from Pinterest) 

Oh the Bajan dialect, a dialect that tends to be a debate among many other Caribbean islands either for its uniqueness or more than often, hilarious sound, there is literally no in between. Nevertheless, many Barbadians still see this dialect as a treasure and as something that is deeply rooted in our history.

Just to give a brief introduction to the origin of our Bajan dialect, it dates all the way back to slavery, when slaves were brought to the island and were forced to speak in English because of their British slave owners. Therefore, during those times when these enslaved Africans spoke among themselves, this dialect was naturally created and has been passed down through generations.

Barbados Slavery Emancipation (Photo from thehistoryscrapbook.com) 

There are so many Bajan words and phrases that we use here in Barbados such as: “Fussy,” which implies that someone is very particular about something or “fuh-true?” which means “are you serious?” Or one of my favourites, “cheese don bread,” which is an expression or exclamation Bajans use when they are amazed or frustrated. These words and expressions are literally just the tip of the iceberg, come to this island and you will hear much more.

Barbadian people (Photo from Pinterest) 

This week we “gine” take a look, which in a nutshell means, “we are going” to take a look, at Bajan words and phrases that intrigued some of our CARICOM family from islands such as: Guyana, St. Vincent, Jamaica and St. Kitts. After living in Barbados for many years, these people have begun to incorporate these words and phrases into their everyday life.

“My favourite Barbadian word or saying is Cuh-dear,” said Donnette from Jamaica. “The reason is, I just think it’s so cute. I personally love to say it, I hear it being said many times, but I love when I say it. When I say it, it is really being said with empathy. You know, like somebody says something and I’m like, oh-oh, Cuh-dear, poor baby.” She added however, that there is no word equivalent to that in Jamaica, therefore, that is why she believes this expression is unique.

Bajans tend to use this term “Cuh-dear” as a term of endearment, meaning “aww, how sad,” or “poor thing.” If you injured yourself for example, we’d say “Cud-dear," having a hard time? “Cuh-dear,” or see something cute? “Cuh-dear,” there are many situations such as these that we would use this term.

Marcia, who is also from Jamaica said that her favourite expression is “Ope-it-in,”  which means to open something. “Every time I hear it, I laugh and I’m not laughing at them. For me, it’s just so different,” she said. Marcia found that the difference between Bajan speech and Jamaican speech is that Bajans tend to chop words, whereas back home, Jamaicans chop off the “H sounds.” 

Beverly from Guyana said: “I like to hear the Bajan term “wunna.” When I first heard wunna I was like, what do they mean? But then I recognized that you are speaking about other people.” She said that as a Guyanese when she is interacting with Bajan people, she looks for every opportunity to incorporate the term “wunna” in her daily conversations. “I still don’t sound like a Bajan, but it is something about that word wunna that I adopted,” she added. 

In Guyana, Beverly said that they would tend to say “y’all” or “allyuh,” which is equivalent to “Wunna.” “Wunna” is definitely a word that you would hear Bajans use on a daily basis, the direct translation means “you all.” We would say things like “Wunna gud?” which means “are you all good?” or “wunna serious?” meaning, “are you all serious?” these are just two examples of ways we would use this term.

Stephanie, also from Guyana, said that one of the first Bajan sayings which stood out to her was “gipsy,” because when she first came to Barbados her father always used to tell her “them people is gipsy people, don’t mix with them,” referring to the people that lived down her gap or “alley”, as she refers to it. “So when he said gipsy, I was so scared, I said oh God, the people they say working obeah, them is obeah people, them ain’t believe in God.” This is what she thought before she learned about the meaning of “gipsy,” which means overly inquisitive or curious.

Then we have Navia from St. Vincent, she said she likes to hear Bajans say “come lewwo go,” which means “let us go.” She said that the alternative expression in St. Vincent is “let all we go, you understand? So we speak a little different than you all. So it’s like, to get it here I would have to say let us go or are you ready?” She just simply likes the sound of this expression.

Lastly, Cuthbert from St. Kitts said his favourite expression is “oh-loss,” because it sounds kind of funny to him. “Bajans usually use oh loss like if they going through the door and they forget something and they have to turn back,” he said. This Bajan expression is equivalent to “oh my goodness,” we tend to use it whenever we are surprised.

These were just a few of the most popular and most loved Bajan words and expressions shared by our CARICOM family residing in Barbados. Needless to say, this Bajan dialect that is so strongly embedded in this society, will continue to be with us for many generations to come.

References

Barbados Pocket Guide 
https://www.barbadospocketguide.com/our-island-barbados/about-barbados/bajan-dialect.html

Bajan Slang - Barbados.gssites.com
http://barbados.gssites.com/pages/links/bajan_words.html