TANTIE TALK:

Is where to start wid all de bacchanal dat goin' on in dis place? An' is not only de carnival I talkin' about. One minute de UNC winin' up on de PNM wid all de crime an' corruption, an' nex ting yuh know dey start to fightup wid deyself an' findin' more foes than friends within de ranks...is like dey get a 'Spirit Lash' or what?

Cockroach ent have no right in fowl party, an' if all dem peewat cyant get it in dey head to unnerstan' dat dey doh belong in de fete, dat problem is dem own, not mine. De nex few weeks go be plenty interesting, I jes hope de bacchanal an confufflementation doh interfere wid mih carnival. But anyways, enough of dem, we now have a 'new' cable company...an' de way it lookin' is like we might jes endup wid properly workin' cable, an' maybe even a nex telephone company to boot. When yuh search fuh Columbus Communications, it have some interesting results dat come back. Dem real big in de band when it come to hi-tech oui - dem have dey own fibre-optics network dat coverin' de Caribbean Sea, from Florida an' de Bahamas to Venezuela an' back round to Mexico. TSTT mus' be havin'nightmares big time, because when dem linkup T&T to dat network fire ketch.

Speakin' of which, is when it is Digicel an' Laqtel suppose to get dey hookup to TSTT? Soon I hope because neither of dem could be as bad or worse than TSTT or bmobile or whatever dey callin' demself dese days. Yuh try to see how much money yuh have on yuh phone an' all yuh seein' is "Network Busy"...yuh dial a number 3-4 times an' it only ringin' an' ringin' an' then goin' to voicemail but when yuh see who it is yuh was callin' dey phone ent have no missed calls on it! As fuh de 'new' voicemail system...STEUUUUUPPPSSSSS. Throw it 'way an' lewwe have back de ole one ASAP...is who in dey right mind go bring a system dat not only have people bunnin' de battery lissenin' to 3 million menu wid option fuh more, but now de key to DELETE messages is de same one yuh used to use to PLAY messages! Yuh mean to tell me dat in all dem big salary engineer, an' marketing people is not ONE realise dat changing de PLAY key to DELETE go cause problems?

But anyways, at least we get back de Breakfast Shed an' bellyfull back in town. But is what happenin' up at Maracas wid de vendors? Dey gettin' any kinda help from anybody to recover from de effects of de Trininami? We still be a nation of 10 day wonders...Warhol did talk 'bout everybody gettin' 15 mins of fame, but he didn' know 'bout T&T wid we 'problems' dat does automagically dissapear on day 11. Right after any event we all fired up an' rarin' to go, but check we back in 2 weeks see if anybody care nuh. Trininami come an' gone, Central flood an' dry out an' flood again, de calendar runnin' hell hard to ketch up to de murder rate but all we studyin' is how much weight we could lorse in de nex' couple weeks to try an' fit in what passin' fuh a costume dese days. An' jes in case dat is not enough distraction, yuh could still find time to do de Valentine's day ting.

We runnin' hard in de same place an' feelin' we gettin' somewhere, but really an' truly is de world passin' we by because is round an' round we goin' in we own personal playground(s)...an' is none of de go rounds dat merry.

 

BACKCHAT: Issue 06

Salut ma Tante!
After reading your last feedback letter it seems like someone is preparing to write a thesis on your use of the vernacular of the islands(our beautiful twin republic).
On the other hand another respondent is not very happy with the use of the vernacular without realizing that it gives many of us ex-pats quite a
chuckle.Up here in Quebec we have a version of french which is spoken by the ordinary folks and it is called "joual"-a corruption of the french word for horse.There are plays written in joual and it is quite amusing to hear the humour that comes out of the ordinary folk.Every culture has a patois of some kind and when you are well-travelled you pick up quite a few of them.The Haitians have their Creole and you can see their posters and signs in their demonstrations where the word President is written as Prezidan which is simply the phonetic pronunciation of the french word for president.
I enjoy your rants immensely and I would miss it terribly if you discontinued it.So keep on blogging it for the pleasure of those of us who appreciate it.
Ciao!
//Quebec

Well Tants,

You go always get de pros and de cons of every situation. But what really wrong wid dat 'concerned Trini citizen' who was 'realled disappointed' when he/she opened your Trinidiary website and see the crap....'? Who invite he/she? Did he/she go to Holy Name or Fatima24/7 therefore doh know or like we Trini dialek? Dis is how we talk to each odder and if he/she cyar understand it or have a problem wiid it, den doh read it. Period.
As you know, most, if not all of us, who enjoy Trinidiary on a weekly basis, could speak the Queen's English with the best of them...when we
need to. But dis forum is not for dat! So get of de damn bus and lef we be!!!
//Atlanta.
 

Tantie your Talk is great. I teach English here in Guadeloupe and I can use it to show the students there are Englishes, not just Albion  English. Indian english, South African English, all of dem great joy to check.
Even the pure Oxford English is a deviation on the original tonges it  emerged from. Same thing for French. Now when we defend our different
creoles in the Caribbean we defend what we have that is really ours.
Regards, Tantie.
//Guadeloupe.