This news clip is from the site http://www.jumieka.com/ which seeks recognition for the Jamaican patois. Check it out, it’s really interesting. Even the bible will be translated into Jamiekan. Patois leaks into everyday language even in Britain, particularly among the young. My daughter will come home saying “Wagwan?” (What’s going on?).
Some people are demanding that lessons at school in Jamaica be taught in patois. It’s certainly a rich and descriptive dialect, one which adds to the already enormous English vocabulary.
Is this like figging? Or should I await with bated breath?
No, I just think it's interesting and funny. The Jamaican patois is considered a language and this is a News channel for the speakers.
This link came out of a discussion with Miss Brodie. To celebrate Black history month, she got the students, many from West Indian backgrounds, to draw up their own glossary of youth/slang/patois terms. They thoroughly enjoyed it and were silent and very concentrated throughout the whole exercise. Miss Brodie has now enabled comments on her blog.
Also if you double click on the clip, you will go to the Youtube page, where the comments are also written in patois.
aha – no you see when this popped up from my feed it was the subject line alone, no post attached – but now I see the post is there so that answers that! Thanks for the extra information though.
I see what you mean…Jamaican…ginger…figging in three easy steps!
Is Whappen a patois word? There's a reggae record of that title in my collection… it is similar to wagwan… The comments are weird! I await a patois spell checker if such a thing is possible!