Jamesy5008

I worked in a bar in Cyprus in '92 and the owners were Greek-Cypriots. They both did this gesture..........regularly!

scot47

I have seen similar in The Balkans.

Gordon Barlow

Another favourite expression of mine in Cayman is "that's what you get" - pronounced "da' wa' ya geh" - meaning "it serves him right". I expect there is something similar around the region - and of course the Caymanian version quite likely came from Jamaica in years past. So, wa' ya got?

I must add that we Europeans virtually never use the expression; any attempt would be laughed at!

uk_grenada

There are loads of local sayings really eg - crapaud smoke ya pipe - you had a bad experience. Bunjay oi - expletive - they are both from patois i think, the second is a corruption of bon jesus or deus or something like that.

Gordon Barlow

I remember many years ago my young son coming home from school (here in Cayman) laughing about a Jamaican friend's cheeky comment in a Religious Education class. The teacher told the story of Jesus riding an ass (donkey) into Jerusalem, and to get the kids involved asked the class What would Jesus have done if the disciples hadn't been able to find an ass - or, what if they found one but the owner wouldn't lend it to them? What would you have done, the teacher asked. To which Mark said, to great hilarity, "I tell im bout e fader!" (I'd tell him about his father.) To tell someone about his father - or, worse, his mother - is highly insulting. I think the full version is "tell him that his father's shit stinks", but I'm not sure. A bit like the word "raas" is short for "your arse", which is also insulting. "Get that raas dog out of my yard!" is a common enough usage.

I expect that something of this sort is common in other parts of the Caribbean. Who else has encountered it?

uk_grenada

Tends to be cruder here, maybe its the decline of serious double entendre in calypso, but the more subtle insults have largely been replaced with expletives.

One thing that i still find strange, hello is said good day, which is fine, but goodbye is said as goodday goodday.... or in the afternoon goodnight is hello, and goodnight goodnight is goodbye. Where did that come from...

Remember the lesbian references in the song cheek to cheek dancing or the numerous sparrow sex references. Funny thing, when the track hold you by gyptian came out, no english dj could understand the words, so it was played on the bbc for a month before someone pointed it out, bet this site doesnt block it either...

Like a fast bike pon di road, roo-room, roo-room
Gyal pon de back and she-a boom, boom, boom, boom
Gime mi da maga one or the fat tun tun tun tun
When a player has one time we come to come come
Me outta control
A more fire she want inna her soul
She say more pon more and still she groan
And still me multiply more

Gordon Barlow

One strange piece of slang - or maybe just dialect - that I don't encounter much these days, here, is the substitution of "make" (pronounced "mek") for "let". "Let me give you this thing" becomes "mek me...". Anything like that over east?

uk_grenada

No thats not normal here. The morning / night greeting is the most strange thing i feel. The reply to good morning is morning morning, and you never say good evening, its always goodnight, to which the reply is goodnight goodnight....

scot47

"Good Day" as an expression on parting was common in earlier centuries in England. Some aspects of West Indian English come straight from Bristol in the 18th century. Ditto with Colloquial American.

uk_grenada

its not so much the use of good day, its more the reply of good day good day...