31 Comments

I am going to hold on to this post if I ever get to Jamaica, it's the best! You did an excellent job of breaking it down for us. Even though you can fluently understand Jamaican dialect it likely took a lot of work to pull it apart and put it back together so we could understand.

I used to work in an authentic Italian restaurant and the chef would swear (loudly) at the servers in Italian so the only real Italian words I know are the swear words.

One of the many reasons I love living in Canada is that we have two languages. How awesome is that! I suck at French but love going to Quebec because I feel like I am somewhere totally different while being right at home in my own country!

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Well if you're ever going to Jamaica, you've got a personal coach over here 😁😁

Languages are so intriguing. To me, French is one of the ugliest of them though 🤣 I think I've heard far too many French in-flight announcements in my day.

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Thai curse words are my favourite because they’re actually just animals and things found in nature but used in different context 🤣 like 'golden flower' or 'buffalo.' It’s also a bit scary to speak in a tonal language because I could easily be trying to say “banana” but actually say “dick” by mistake—imagine showing up to the shop keeper asking for a bunch of bananas, and actually asking for a bunch of dicks. 🫠

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Lmaoooo I don't know why but Justin Timberlake's "Dick in a box" SNL skit just flooded my brain 🤣

Thanks for this, Kaitlyn!

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OMG hahaha this will be stuck in my head all day today, guaranteed.

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Patois sounds so melodic. Love this Jamaican/urban dictionary post.

I’m not surprised they don’t use the “th” sounds. It’s only in our lovely English language where we stick out our tongue to say, That there…— and also the lisp-sound from northern Spain.

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Yessss that lisp sound! I only learned about a year ago that Ibiza is actually Ibitha. It sounds and feels so weird to me.

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Of course it’s so charming on a Spaniard. I think we should switch out “th” for the line “t” sound. My Italian SIL calls my daughter, Samanta. Sounds like a fizzy drink.

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LOL an orange samanta.

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I sense that being a massage therapist in Jamaica could lead to rubbing someone the wrong way. "Do you want your neck and back massaged or just your neckback and ed? Bumbo? What? I'll put my footback in my mouth."

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"Massaging Ed? NO....It's me...I want the massage!!" 😂😂 It can get complicated lol.

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Ha, hard to make eds or tales out of this one!

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LMFAO!!! You need to be on stage.

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No, but thanks! I like to be in the wings + peanut gallery.

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This made me laugh! I loved that you knew what they were saying - undercover knowledge! 😂 when we were in Costa Rica it was fun learning the ‘dichos’ and ‘secret’ sayings that only locals knew. We could call a cheap skate guest a hueso (a bone) and they wouldn’t know it. (We didn’t say it to them directly of course!) 😂

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Hahaha I love undercover knowledge! Sometimes it makes all the difference in a venting session without anyone knowing 😁

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Interesting. 🤣 I recently tried to explain douche bag to my Turkish boyfriend. Haha.

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Lmao how did it go??

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Not sure he got it. Hahaha

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Hilariously funny and true! 😂

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Oct 30Liked by Kristi Keller

I love the way Jamaican pigeon or patois? sounds -- do they call it pigeon? We lived on Maui for a long while and the locals just made us laugh out loud! Such funny stuff, and so clever. Plus they could fall into it in a sec if they were w/ family, but if they had to sound 'regular,' switch it right off (well, kinda). Love the whole island vibe--guess it matters not what ocean you're in.

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It's Patois in Jamaica 🇯🇲 and you're right, the island doesn't matter. They all have something to teach us!

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Oct 29Liked by Kristi Keller

An entire language bomb!!! 🤣😂

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This is adorable in all the best ways 😆 💗

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Oct 29Liked by Kristi Keller

I heard kids using bumboclot in junior high but we never knew what it meant. We used douchbag and twatwaffle quite often though.

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LOL well now you know, if they were using bumboclot AT you...you weren't on their cool list 🤣

And for the record, I've never heard twatwaffle before!!! WTH?

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So I guess a lot of the strange expressions I hear in the lyrics of reggae tunes must be patois...

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LOL yup! it's such an odd but interesting version of English. I've always loved it.

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