Jamaican Sayings

Today (August 6 2011) the island of Jamaica celebrates 49 years of independent self-rule free from British colonialism. Here are a few sayings of the Jamaican people! Enjoy…

Thanks to friends: Romy & John, my mother & grandmother and a couple of websites which are good for a laugh (see end).

“Cockroach nuh business inna fowl fight” = Stay out of things that don’t concern you or else!

One one cocoa full basket = scenario: you need £100 and you get £1 every so often, you are discouraged but somebody encourages you by saying “One one cocoa full basket” – think Tesco – “every little helps” – my dad always uses this one, particularly when watching the West Indies cricket team slowly reach their target!

“What sweet yu goin sour yu” = (with certain things) if you like it, one of these days will hurt you

“You can’t butter you bread and eat it” = Think: “You can’t have your cake and eat it”

“What gone bad a morning cant come good a evening” = particularly used of wild children. If something is destroyed from its beginning it will remain the same e.g. a badly raised child.

“heng pon nail” = Basically meaning your clothes are not on properly and you look like you are “hanging on a nail”. I’ve had this a lot from my mother – clearly she doesn’t think much of my dress sense!

“Wha sweet nanny goat a go run him belly” = If you think you’re a know all and ignore the advice of others you will suffer!

“Play wid puppy, puppy lick yu mout” = If you spoil/be naive with someone they will take advantage

“Every dawg have him day an every puss him 4 o’clock” = What goes around comes around

“If the finger bad you can’t chop off the hand” = One bad element in something does not mean you should discard the whole thing

“Hang your basket where your hand can reach it” - Spend what you can

“If yu han’ in lion mout tek time tek it out” = If your hand is in the metaphorical lion’s mouth and you pull to rashly (against the situation) you will get bitten

“Good fowl a go a market sensei fowl pick up themself deh follow back a dem” = Mum loves this one, apparently my Grandad (her dad) employed the phrase a lot, took me years to figure it out. It basically means someone who knows what they are doing goes off to ‘do what they do’ then a pretender who doesn’t have a clue copies them! Or the more succinct definition I found on the internet – “Person with class being copied by ghetto individual.”

“Duppy know who fi frighten” = Bullies usually know who to prey on – another favourite of my mum

Here is one final one that I couldn’t find out the meaning of! Comment your explanation if you know it

‘yuh bread butter an’ yuh coco roast’?

Here is a great wikipedia page! Very good! Realised where some of the words Jamaicans say all the time come from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Patois

Websites consulted:

http://www.everytingjamaican.com/jamaicatalk/general-discussions/10740-jamaican-parables.html

http://www.inboxity.com/view.asp?id=454

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