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TANTIE TALK:
Yuh ever stop and study jes how many language it have in dis land? Yuh have de Official Language. Den de National Language. Den like every odder country yuh have Obscene Language and its variations and sub-categories. Den it have ah whole setta Odder Language dat is only a small setta people does deal up wid.
De Official Language - English ... but which English? De Queen's English? BBC English? Or dese days, even Voice-of-America English. Even in England dey have so many variations on dey 'own' language, dat yuh does have to check to see eef yuh really in England. And to besides, it could just as easily have been French or Spanish as we official language.
De National Language - Trini ... contrary to popular belief, dis eh no dialect and it eh broken English. Is ah true true language all its own, wid its own roots. We never stop to tink dat we language is ah true true mixup jes like we people because dey all come from de same source. De vocabulary is English yes, but when yuh really study it, de grammatical structure come straight from French and Spanish and yuh only have to watch de history of Trinidad & Tobago to unnerstan' dat. It go help plenty in de solidifying of our Trini awareness of and pride for who we are when we stop thinking of our national language as bastardised English.
Obscene ... well Tantie eh have to tell yuh much 'bout dis. All yuh have to do is open yuh ears ah morning and yuh go hear ah wide variety of, shall we say, 'colourful' expressions rolling past. And dis before yuh foot good touch de ground and yuh outta bed. There's the greeting of a long lost friend when yuh first enquire of his mother and her posterior before yuh reach to where he has been
all this time. Then there are the 'fornicatory' interjections into casual speech, without malice aforethought. But when there IS malice aforethought, those self same phrases take on a whole new life ... and myriad shades of blue.
We then have the dead and dying languages. No, not Latin and Greek ... but our
Patois and Hindi and Urdu and Cantonese and Arabic and Portuguese. They may not have had as great a usage amongst the wider population as English, French and Spanish did, but they are all our languages and we need to recognise that, because eef Trini doh know whey dey come from, how de hell dey go know whey dey going?
Tell Tantie: tantie@trinidiary.com
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