Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Secondary Reasearch
The article I read talked about Trinidadian phrases or slang my father being from Trinidad I have learned some of these things for example "lime" means to hang out with friends and usually when you "lime" you tend to "ole talk" which is empty chatter. After you "lime" you free up which is relaxing. Some words/phrases that I don't know are these; "sock eye" -too easy for words and "langniappe" -a little extra. I have still not found what West Indian or specifically Trinidadain dialect called.
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The language is called Trinidadian-Creole. The old language in Trinidad (the language once spoken in Paramin) is called Kweyol. You will find that this language is alive and thriving in the beautiful islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Martin, Dominica, St Lucia, etc... During slavery, the Africans were forced to create a language in order to communicate with each other. They integrated Spanish, French, English, African and Indigenous languages to create one standard language, creating a creole mixture. The words "dialect" or "patois" is derogatory and should not be used to describe the language spoken. The colonists used to look down upon the language spoken by the enslaved Africans and called it patois which means "rough speech." Patois was originally used to refer to non-standard regional dialects of French peasants in France. The English language derived from French and German, do they call it a dialect or patois? That is something to ponder. Although we do not officially have a name for it, but we can call it Trinidadian-Creole.
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