Over the last week there has been a flurry of excitement and discussion on various social media platforms on, of all subjects, Guyanese Creolese vocabulary. The source of this exhilaration was last Wednesday’s (18th September) release of the quarterly update of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
According to the OED website, “It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and usage of 500,000 words and phrases past and present, from across the English-speaking world.” The entity has developed a new approach to documenting World English in this update, which includes more than 600 new words, phrases, and senses, “added from East African English, Guyanese English, New Zealand English, and Welsh English”.The new words are examined under five headings: Factsheet, Etymology, Meaning and Use, Pronunciation, and Forms.
Among the words selected from our Creolese lexicon are, ‘banna’, ‘belna’, ‘butter flap’, ‘caddy ole punch’, ‘comfa’, ‘feg’, ‘foreday morning’, ‘hard ears’, ‘ketcha’, ‘pagalee’, ‘prags’, ‘queh-queh’, ‘salara’, and ‘typee’. The detailed analysis of the new additions by the OED gives credence to its claim as “an unsurpassed guide” to World English. For instance, under the category of Meaning and Use for the word ‘banna’ (noun) it states: “Caribbean (Guyana) colloquial. 1968 – A person; esp. A young person. Also used as a form of address to a young male friend or peer.” The OED then cites examples (varying from four to five) of its past usage and the sources. Here are the first two offered for the word ‘banna’.
“1968 The .. new play..called ‘Sit Down, Banna’, which is about a group of coloured students in England. Daily Telegraph 13 January 17/5 …”
“1993 ‘I come for the cocaine that I left with you.’ Boyce responded, ‘banna what you put me [in]’. Sunday Stabroek (Guyana) 8 August 11/4.”
The lively online exchanges – bereft of the political slant for once – ranged from the spell-ing, ‘catcha’ as opposed to ‘ketcha’, or ‘pagaly’ instead of ‘pagalee’, to the meaning and use of these words. Of course, the word ‘typee’ (Noun, 1970) – intense infatuation; lovesickness. Also a modifier, designating a genre of romantic music – OED – has spawned a discussion all of its own, as the various forms were dissected by the ‘experts’ on the subject. Whereas, the word ‘pagalee’ hatched a debate over the usage as documented by the OED, which read; “Caribbean (esp. Guyana) colloquial (usually derogatory or offensive). [Adjective – 1975] Of a person: (originally) having an intellectual disability (later also and now chiefly) foolish, unintelligent, irrational, or out of touch with reality.” A frequent counter interpretation of the word is that it refers to a person’s awkwardness at physical sports (still derogatory or offensive), and its application is frequently alternated with another colloquial word ‘lamata’, or the adage of “someone having two left feet.”
Whilst we savour our word battles and temporarily bask in the glow of our language, unique as it is, being presented by the prestigious OED on the world stage, perhaps the time is right to pause our banter to acknowledge the work of those pioneers who documented this important composite of our culture. Their gruelling efforts to scour, source and capture our lexicon and folklore should never be taken for granted or forgotten.
Here are the names of just a few of this rare breed of preservationists, some of whom are no longer with us to witness the worldly acceptance of what was, more often than not, a labour of love. Clement Aloysius Yansen (1906 – 1979) tutored several generations of students at Modern High School, Berbice High School, and Queen’s College. ‘The Roman’, a nickname appended to Yansen, for his love of the classics, taught Latin, French and English for over 50 years. His legacy to us is his tome “Random Remarks on Creolese”, initially released in 1966, and republished in 1979 (Revised edition, Volume 1 and Volume 2 combined). Arthur James Seymour (1914 – 1989), referred to as AJ, was a poet, essayist and founding editor of the literary journal, ‘Kyk – Over – Al’. AJ made innumerable contributions to local and Caribbean culture, editing and publishing the work of several leading writers. Oft forgotten in the long list of his enduring work is, “A Dictionary of Guyanese Folklore” (1975).
Wordsworth McAndrew (1936 – 2008) poet and folklorist supreme, was one of the leading proponents of the everyday usage of Creolese language since back in the 1970s. Mac’s radio programmes “What else?”, “Creole Meche Meche”, “Proverb for Today” and his brilliant reading of Guyanese short stories on the Guyana Marketing Corporation-sponsored show were captivating listening during the evenings (prior to the advent of television). One can only imagine the kind of magic Mac, in his own inimitable style , would weave with the following sentences. “Dem banna hard ears, dem eat dey belly full of butter flap and salara this foreday morning, and now they feg out like caddy ole punch after playing ketcha. Don’t worry with dem, dey hard ears, dem only got typee for prags.” Mac worked tirelessly to gather, conserve and celebrate folklife, utilising all avenues of the media – oral, visual and written – to present his case. Besides his immortal poem, “Ole Higue”, Mac’s priceless legacy includes his folklore manual, “Ooiy!” (1979).
Dr Richard Allsopp (1933 – 2009), who was appointed as the first Dean of the UWI Cave Hill Campus in 1964, was a leading Caribbean linguist whose interest in our language dates back to 1949 whilst a student at Queen’s College. In 1971, he launched the Caribbean Lexicography Project and became its first Director and Coordinator. Twenty-five years later, he published the landmark “Dic-tionary of Caribbean English Usage”. He authored several 70 scholarly articles on Caribbean lexicography, creole linguistics and English language teaching, and also published “A Book of Afric Caribbean Proverbs” (2005) and the posthumously “New Caribbean Register of English Usage” (2010) which had been completed in 2007. He had the unique distinction of being the first West Indian invited to serve on the editorial board of the OED and the American Heritage Dictionary.
Dr John Rickford (1949) is currently the Profes-sor of Linguistics and the Humanities at Stanford University (USA). Whilst lecturing at the University of Guyana (1974 – 80), where he still serves as an external examiner for linguistic courses, he published “A Festival of Guyanese Words” (1978). Based in the USA since the early 1980s, Dr Rickford has conducted extensive work in the area of African-American Vernacular English, but retains an interest in the region, serving as the Chief Editor for Studies in Caribbean Languages which publishes scholarly monographs and edited volumes on languages of the Caribbean, and Caribbean languages used in diaspora communities worldwide.
We salute these pioneers and all the other contributors who worked assiduously to document our Creolese dialect. It is only fitting that we recall the words, once again, of that past moulder of minds, Clement Yansen, on the subject of Creolese. “English must, and will be, at least in the foreseeable future, the official language; but Creolese, modernized and streamlined, will ever remain the true idiom of all Guyanese. The reason for this belief is clear. In Creolese today, as has always been the case, there are patent signs of enduring strength. All the elements of such strength are there. In spite of what its critics and detractors may wish, say, or do, Creolese will continue to flourish in every walk of Guyanese life.”