Valerie Bloom , "Language Barrier"

English 165CL: Caribbean Literature (Winter 2002)
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara

Jamaica language sweet yuh know bwoy,
An yuh know mi nebba notice i',
Till tarra day one foreign frien'
Come spen some time wid mi.

An dem im call mi attention to
Some tings im sey soun' queer,
Like de way wi always sey 'koo yah'
When we really mean 'look here'.

Todda day im a walk outa road
An when im a pass one gate,
Im see one bwoy a one winda,
An one nodda one outside a wait.

Im sey dem did look kine o' nice
Soh im ben a go sey howdy,
But im tap shart when de fus' bwoy sey
'A ready yuh ready aready?'

Den like sey dat ney quite enuff,
Fe po' likkle foreign Hugh,
Him hear de nedda bwoy halla out,
'A come mi come fe come wait fe yuh',

An dat is nat all dat puzzle him,
Why wi run wi words togedda?
For when im expec' fe hear 'the other',
him hear dis one word, 'todda'.

Instead o' wi sey 'all of you'
Wi ongle sey unoo,
Him can dis remember sey
De wud fe 'screech owl' is 'patoo'.

As fe some expression him hear,
Im wouldn badda try meck dem out,
Like 'boonoonoonos,' 'chamba-chamba',
An 'kibba up yuh mout'.

Him can hardly see de connection,
Between 'only' an 'dengey',
An im woulda like fe meet de smaddy
Who invent de wud 'preckey'.

Mi advise im no fe fret imself,
For de Spaniards do it to,
For when dem mean fe sey 'jackass',
Dem always say 'burro'.

De French, Italian, Greek an Dutch,
Dem all guilty o' de crime
None a dem no chat im language,
Soh Hugh betta larn fe mime.

But sayin' dis and dat yuh know,
Some o' wi cyan eben undastan one anodda,
Eben doah wi all lib yah
An chat de same patois.

For from las' week mi a puzzle out,
Whey Joey coulda mean,
When im teck im facey self soh ax
Ef any o' im undapants clean.