Similarities Between African Pidgin English And Jamaican Patois (Online Excerpts)

Edited by Azizi Powell 

This pancocojams post presents some online excerpts about the similarities between African  Pidgin English and Jamaican Patois (Patwa).

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, linguistic, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/west-african-pidgin-english-and-united_17.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "West African Pidgin English And United States Gullah Language (Online Excerpts)."

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ONLINE EXCERPTS
These excerpts are given in no particular order. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

EXCERPT #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_Pidgin_English
…"Historical impact

The various pidgin and creole languages still spoken in West Africa today – the Aku language in The Gambia, Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Fernando Po Creole English, etc. – are all derived from the early West African Pidgin English.[citation needed] These contemporary English-based pidgin and creole languages are so similar that they are increasingly grouped together under the name "West African Pidgin English", although the term originally designated only the original trade language spoken on the West African coast two hundred years ago.

Some scholars also argue that African slaves took West African Pidgin English to the New World where it helped give rise to the English-based creoles that developed there, including the Gullah language in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, Bahamian Dialect, Jamaican Creole, Belizean Kriol, Guyanese Creole, Sranan Tongo in Suriname, etc. Since the slaves taken to the Americas spoke many different African languages, they would have found West African Pidgin English as useful as a lingua franca on the plantations as they had found it back home in West Africa as a trading language. Their enslaved children born in the Americas would have adopted different versions of West African Pidgin English as their "native" languages, thus creating a series of New World English-based creoles.

The similarities among the many English-based pidgin and creole languages spoken today on both sides of the Atlantic are due, at least in part, to their common derivation from the early West African Pidgin English. Note the following examples, all of which mean "They are going there to eat rice":

Sierra Leone Krio: "Dem dey go for go eat res"

Ghanaian Pidgin English: "Dem dey go chop rais"

Nigerian Pidgin English: "Dem dey go chop rice"

Cameroonian Pidgin English: "Dey di go for go chop rice"

Gullah: "Dem duh gwine fuh eat rice" "

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EXCERPT #2
From https://termcoord.eu/2018/04/nigerian-pidgin-english/#:~:text=Nigerian%20Pidgin%20English%20(NPE)%2C,diaspora%2C%20due%20to%20Nigerian%20migrants. NIGERIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH, by Linda Nkwocha Okeh 3/4/2018 
"During the European quest for new markets and raw materials in the 17th Century, many Portuguese missionaries and traders arrived on the shores of Jamaica and West and Central African  countries like: Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Nigeria were largely visited by the missionaries. For trade and religious purposes with no language in common they created a form of communication with bases from the European language, giving birth to most African languages: such as Creole, Pidgin, and Patois. These languages came to serve the linguistic need there, by giving birth to the Cameroon Camfranglais (mixture of French and English) spoken by the youth today.

Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE), originated as a lingua franca for trade purposes amongst the Nigerians and the Portuguese merchants during the 17th century.  It is broken English like Patois and Creole, spoken along the coast of West Africa and it has extended to the diaspora, due to Nigerian migrants.  After the departure of the missionaries, this lingua franca did not go with them but remained and is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria today compared to English.  There are still Portuguese words present in the NPE such as : “ Sabi (to know)  and Pikin  (child)” .

NPE is regarded as a bastardization of the English language used by the non-literates, though it is highly spoken in Nigeria by every individual starting from an early age. In the country, both the literates, such as the president, campaigning politicians, lawyers, doctors, and non-literates speak and understand pidgin, though it is mostly used in informal situations and English is used for official purposes and the medium of education. NPE is the most widely spoken language as it is not a native language of any tribe in Nigeria but the only language everyone understands and regards as the easiest form of interaction amongst the population.The Federal Republic of Nigeria has three major languages namely: Igbo in the (East), Yoruba in the (South) and Hausa in the (North )  having English as the official language alongside other 500 different spoken dialects. Indeed, NPE is considered as a bastardized language as it is yet to have a standard written form. University in Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria both undergraduate and postgraduate levels , department of English and Drama are now offering it as a course  and many struggles are being put up for NPE to be considered Nigeria’s official language as it is highly used by the masses, high school students, postgraduates and undergraduates, politicians and business people.

NPE is not only spoken in Nigeria, it is widely used by the diasporic communities in America, England, and Canada. In addition, a large group of the Nigerian community in Luxembourg use Pidgin as a means of communication, these diasporic communities use pidgin among themselves as a means to feel at home.

[...]

NPE varies in written and spoken form depending on which part of the country the speaker is from, as the language is spoken differently in each state of the country. Each State tends to add words from their dialect into Pidgin making it more interesting for the ears and understood by everyone. Nigerian Pidgin English remains the only language that unifies the 186 million population. 

Written by  Linda Nkwocha Okeh – Communications’ Study Visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament (Luxembourg) and a student of the Master Program in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. Linda holds  a Bachelor’s  degree in Linguistics and Applied Foreign Languages French – English from University of  Dschang , Cameroon. She speaks English,  French, Igbo(Mother tongue), Nigerian pidgin English, Camfranglais and basic German.  Born in Cameroon but Nigerian by Nationality , before coming to Luxembourg she was a teacher of French. "

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EXCERPT #3
From https://www.amazon.com/Comparative-Analysis-Jamaican-Nigerian-English/dp/1478158905 A 
Comparative Analysis of Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin English Paperback
July 2, 2012 by Pamela Odimegwu (Author)
"Nigerian Pidgin English shows a large number of similarities to Jamaican Creole or Patois. Many phrases and words in Patois are also found in Nigerian Pidgin English. Linguists believe that this is due to the fact that the majority of slaves taken to the New World were from West Africa. Though many comparative studies have been made on Pidgins and Creoles, none or not many have been made specifically on Nigerian Pidgin English and Jamaican Creole. This book examines some of the similarities and differences which exist between Nigerian Pidgin English and Jamaican Creole. The book also investigates whether these two languages do, in fact have a common origin.”...

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EXCERPT #4
From https://www.nairaland.com/2139321/nigerian-pidgin-carribean-islands-pidgin Nigerian Pidgin And Carribean Islands Pidgin; Similarities And History by ItsAnderson: 12:03am On Feb 10, 2015
"Nigerian Pidgin is an English-based pidgin and creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is commonly referred to as "Pidgin" or "Brokin".

It is distinguished from other creole languages since most speakers are not true native speakers, although many children do learn it at an early age. It can be spoken as a pidgin, a creole, or a decreolised acrolect by different speakers, who may switch between these forms depending on the social setting.

Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa share similarities to the various dialects of English found in the Caribbean. Some of the returning descendants of slaves taken to the New World of West African origin brought back many words and phrases to West Africa from the Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies which are components of Nigerian Pidgin. The pronunciation and accents often differ a great deal, mainly due to the extremely heterogeneous mix of African languages present in the West Indies, but if written on paper or spoken slowly, the creole languages of West Africa are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of the Caribbean.

The presence of repetitious phrases in Jamaican Creole such as "su-su" (gossip) and "pyaa-pyaa" (sickly) mirror the presence of such phrases in West African languages such as "bam-bam", which means "complete" in the Yoruba language.

Repetitious phrases are also present in Nigerian Pidgin, such as, "koro-koro", meaning "clear vision", "yama-yama", meaning "disgusting", and "doti-doti", meaning "garbage".

Furthermore, the use of the words of West African origin in Jamaican Patois, such as "boasie" (meaning proud, a word that comes from the Yoruba word "bosi" also meaning "proud" and "Unu" - Jamaican Patois or "Wuna" - West African Pidgin (meaning "you people", a word that comes from the Igbo word "una" also meaning "you people" display some of the interesting similarities between the English pidgins and creoles of West Africa and the English pidgins and creoles of the West Indies, as does the presence of words and phrases that are identical in the languages on both sides of the Atlantic, such as "Me a go tell dem" (I'm going to tell them) and "make we" (let us). Use of the word "deh" or "dey" is found in both Jamaican Patois and Nigerian Pidgin English, and is used in place of the English word "is" or "are".

The phrase "We dey foh London" would be understood by both a speaker of Patois and a speaker of Nigerian Pidgin to mean "We are in London". Other similarities, such as "pikin" (Nigerian Pidgin for "child" and "pikney" (or "pikiny", Jamaican Patois for "child", akin to the standard-English pejorative/epithet pickaninny) and "chook" (Nigerian Pidgin for "poke" or "stab" which corresponds with the Jamaican Patois word "jook", further demonstrate the linguistic relationship.

Source : Wikipedia"

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EXCERPT #5
From https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/food-travel/20-jamaican-words-that-originated-from-nigerian-languages/dw71pw9 20 Jamaican words that originated from Nigerian languages by ADAOBI ONYEAKAGBU, December 8, 2021
"Igbo culture and languages, as well as other cultures from Africa, were key in forming the Jamaican Patois language and culture during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Jamaican Patois is a colourful mix of several languages passed down from our colonial past and Igbo, Efik and Yoruba ancestors.

[...] 

5. Buckra
This is an Efik term from mbakára, meaning “white man”

6. Chink, Chinch
This is from the Igbo chị́nchị̀, meaning “bedbug”

[...]

14. Obeah
from Igbo ọbiạ, meaning “doctoring”, “mysticism”

15. Okra
This is from the Igbo ọkwurụ, a vegetable

[...]

17. Red Ibo, Eboe
from Ị̀gbò, a person with a light skin colour or a mulatto of mixed parentage

[...]

20. Unu
from Igbo language únù, meaning “you (plural)”

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West African Pidgin English And United States Gullah Language (Online Excerpts)

 Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents two online excerpts about West African Pidgin English and  United States Gullah language.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, linguistic, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Dr. Peter W. Vakunta, and thanks to Farooq A Kperogi. Thanks also to the research and writing of Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner and thanks to all others who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/similarities-between-african-pidgin.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Similarities Between African Pidgin English And Jamaican Patois (Online Excerpts)".

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ONLINE EXCERPT #1
From https://www.postnewsline.com/2010/06/american-gullah-cousin-to-west-african-pidgin-english.html AMERICAN GULLAH, COUSIN TO WEST AFRICAN PIDGIN ENGLISH?

BY DR. PETER W. VAKUNTA, 06 June 2010
"Creolization is an intriguing linguistic phenomenon. A creole is a stable language that has originated from a pidgin that has been nativized. The vocabulary of a creole language consists of cognates from parent languages, though there are often clear phonetic and semantic shifts. Creoles arise in the context of trade, colonialism, and slavery when people of diverse linguistic backgrounds are thrown together and must forge a common means of communication. Creolized languages are essentially hybrids that blend linguistic influences from a variety of different sources. Like human beings, global creoles have ancestors. Such is the case with the American Creole commonly referred to as Gullah or Geechee. Gullah is spoken by a distinctive group of African Americans in the southeastern United States. These people live in small farming and fishing communities along the Atlantic coastal plain and on the chain of Sea Islands which runs parallel to the coast. Because of their geographical isolation and strong community life, the Gullah have been able to preserve more of their African cultural heritage than any other group of African Americans.

Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but today the Gullah area is confined to South Carolina and Georgia Low country. The name "Gullah" might have been derived from Angola, where some Gullah people might have originated. Some scholars suggest that the term comes from Gola, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. The name "Geechee," another common name for the Gullah people, comes from Kissi, an ethnic group living in the border region between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The Gullah are known for preserving their African linguistic and cultural heritage. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords.  Gullah has significant affinities with African languages in terms of grammatical and syntactic structures.

The origin of Gullah language is as unique as the cadence and rhythm of its sounds. Slaves from the Sea Islands of South Carolina and northern Georgia were brought to America largely from different communities of West Africa. Many spoke distinctive languages, and in order to communicate with each other and with the slave masters, they combined words from their native tongues with the English they learned to form the unique Gullah language. For years, language scholars made the mistake of viewing the Gullah language as "broken English," because they failed to recognize the strong underlying influence of African languages on this lingua franca. But linguists today view Gullah as a full and complete language with its own recognizable grammatical structure. The first scholar to make an in-depth study of Gullah language was the late Dr. Lorenzo Turner, who published his findings in 1949.

As an African American, Dr. Turner was able to win the confidence of the Gullah people, and studied many aspects of their language that were previously unknown. He found that Gullah men and women all have African nicknames or "basket names" in addition to their English names for official use. His research showed that the Gullah language, like other Atlantic Creoles, contains a substantial number of vocabulary words borrowed directly from African substrate languages. Dr. Turner also made the spectacular discovery that certain Gullah men and women, living in isolated rural areas of South Carolina and Georgia in the 1940s, could still recall simple texts in various African languages—texts passed from generation to generation and still intelligible to date.  He provided evidence that buttressed the contention that Gullah creole language is similar to Sierra Leonean Krio.  Mende and Vai phrases are embedded in Gullah songs; Mende passages are recurrent in Gullah stories; and an entire Mende song, apparently a dirge, exists in Gullah. Dr. Turner also found some Gullah people who could count from one to nineteen in the Guinea/Sierra Leonean dialect called Fula. Although his Gullah informants knew that these expressions were culled from African languages and in some cases knew the proper translation, they did not know which specific African languages they were reciting.

A British historian, P.E.H. Hair, later published a review of Dr. Turner's work in which he noted that Sierra Leonean languages have made a "major contribution" to the development of the Gullah language. Dr. Hair pointed to the astonishing fact that all of the African texts known to be preserved by the Gullah are in languages spoken in Sierra Leone. Mende, which accounts for most of the African passages collected by Turner, is spoken almost entirely in Sierra Leone, while Vai and the specific dialect of Fula are found on the borders with Liberia and Guinea. Hair also noted that a remarkably large proportion of the four thousand African personal names and loanwords in the Gullah language come from Sierra Leone. He calculated that twenty-five percent of the African names and twenty percent of the African vocabulary words are from Sierra Leonean languages, principally Mende and Vai. Hair concluded that South Carolina and Georgia is the only place in the Americas where Sierra Leonean languages have exerted this degree of influence. Gullah language speakers use Sierra Leone Krio expressions such as bigyai (greedy), pantap (on top of) udat (who?), and usai (where?) among others. According to Hair, the most noted similarities between Gullah and the languages spoken in West Africa include the peculiar way in which nouns, pronouns, verbs, and tenses are used. Almost all Gullah nouns are singular, and no distinction is made between singular and plural verbs. These traits are noticeable in many African languages as well.

Here are a few Gullah words with African origins. The language or country of origin is listed in parentheses whenever possible:

a'min - Amen (Wolof)

be - to cultivate, to clean, to remove debris (Temme)

bid', bidi - small bird, small chicken (Kongo)

buckra - white man (Ibidio)

da (dada) - mother, nurse, or elder woman (Ewe)

dash away - to get rid of a bad habit

dayclean - dawn

de - to be (Igbo)

differ - a quarrel

e - pronoun for he, she, it

eh - yes (Igbo)

fanner - a large shallow basket made of wild grass and palmetto, used to thresh rice from its hull.

hudu - to cause bad luck to someone (Via)

kuta - tortoise, turtle (Mende)

nyam, nam - to eat

nanse - spider (Temme)

nana - elderly woman, grandmother (Twi)

oona, hoona - you, singular or plural, from the word "ona," meaning one or a single person

plat-eye - a prowling ghost or evil spirit

shut mout' - secretive or withdrawn

tata - father (Kongo)

tote - to pick up (Kongo)

toti frog - frog (Via)

uni - you, your (Ibo)

yam - sweet potato (Mende)

[Taken from "The Water Brought Us," by Muriel Miller Branch]"...
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This excerpt has been reformatted to enhance its readability.

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ONLINE EXCERPT #2
From https://www.nairaland.com/2960917/african-words-american-english African Words In The American English - Culture – Nairaland

[Pancocojams Editor’s Note: This excerpt was given as one long comment that quotes the book Global English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World by Farooq A Kperogi. I reformatted this excerpt to enhance its readability.]

"African Words In The American English by badaru1(m): 6:46am On Feb 28, 2016

[…]

Most Influential African Languages in Gullah? People who have been following my series on the Gullah have asked if I can give them a sense of which African languages have had the most influence on Gullah. That is a difficult question to answer, but I will give it a shot.

According to Elizabeth Donnan’s Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America vol. 4, which was published in 1935, between 1716 and 1744, 51 percent of slaves brought to Charleston, South Carolina (from where they were later taken to Georgia) came from Angola (which includes present-day Angola and the Congo); 7.4 percent came from Senegambia; 4.7 percent came from the Bight of Biafra, which encompasses most of present-day (coastal) southern Nigeria; 2.8 percent came from the Gold Coast, which is now Ghana; 0.2 came percent from the Windward Coast, which is now Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire; and the geographic and ethnic origins of 33.9 percent are unknown, perhaps because they came from the Caribbean Islands.

From 1749 to 1787, 25.2 percent of the slaves taken to the Sea Islands came from Senegambia; 16.7 percent came from Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire; 14.6 percent came from what is now Angola and Congo; 13.1 percent came from present-day Ghana; 6.6 percent came from Sierra Leone; 2.2 percent came from the Bight of Benin, in what is now Benin Republic and Togo; 0.8 percent came from the Bight of Biafra or southern Nigeria; and 20.7 percent came from the Caribbean Islands. From 1804 to 1807, 52 percent of the Africans who became Gullah came from Angola and the Congo; 17.9 percent from Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire; 11.4 percent from Ghana; 4.7 percent from Sierra Leone; 1.7 percent from Senegambia; 2.5 percent from (coastal) southern Nigeria; 1.6 percent from Madagascar and Mozambique; and 8.2 percent from the Caribbean Islands.

It is obvious from this record that the majority of Gullah people who came directly from Africa are descended from Angola and the Congo. It also means that the Nigerian (Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Bini, etc.) influence in the language and culture of the Gullah people is disproportionate to their number, given that comparatively few Gullah people are descended from what is now Nigeria. (I am certain that the Fulani influence in Gullah numerals is from Senegambia, not from Nigeria.)

What has become apparent to me from reading various books on the Gullah people is that they inherited various things from several different ancestors. Most of their quotidian cultural performances have heavy Sierra Leonean and Liberian imprints, to use the modern identifiers for their places of origin. In terms of lexical influences in their language, Senegambia (Mandingo, Fulani, Wolof, etc.) and Angola tend to predominate, although there are tinctures of lexical influences from almost all of the ethnicities from which they trace their ancestral provenance.

In personal names, Yoruba is disproportionately dominant, especially given that slave records from the Port of Charleston in South Carolina show that less than 1 percent of the ancestors of the Gullah are Yoruba. Of the nearly 4,000 personal names Turner recorded, I identified 775 names that are unmistakably Yoruba, including names like Oduduwa (the mythological Yoruba progenitor), and even names of Yoruba sub-groups like Ijesa and Ogbomosho. Nonetheless, as the records I quoted above show, merely looking at the percentage distribution of Africans brought to the Sea Islands to determine the Nigerian origins of Gullah people may be misleading since a large number of their ancestors came to their present location by way of the Caribbean Islands. My sense is that the Nigerian (particularly Yoruba and Igbo) influence in Gullah culture and language emerged from their ancestors who came from the Caribbean Islands.

Decreolization of Gullah
Gullah, unfortunately, is dying in Georgia and South Carolina. Many young people no longer speak it, and those who speak it either consciously or involuntarily purge the African influences in it, making it sound increasingly close to mainstream American English. This process is called “decreolization.” So Gullah is on its way to becoming what linguists call a “vestigial post-creole,” that is, a former lingual admixture of indigenous languages and a foreign (often European) language that has now taken both the structure and vocabulary of the foreign language and dismantled all or most elements of the indigenous languages that constituted the substrate of the admixture.

[...]

In a chapter of my book, Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World, I discussed the African heritage of common English words and expressions, which entered the language through so-called African American Vernacular English (AMVE). I pointed out that some expressions/words started out as African-derived Gullah dialectal expressions, made their way to demotic African-American speech, and then to global conversational English through what I called "pop-cultured-induced linguistic osmosis." At other times, certain conventional colloquial (American English) expressions (such as "my bad," "to bad-mouth someone," "do your own thing," etc.) began life as calque formations from West African languages in African-American English before mutating to mainstream English. This is also true of many everyday words like "tote," "jitters," "phony," etc. From reading Turner’s book, I’ve discovered African-derived English words like “yam” (from the Mandingo yam or yambi, the Ga (Ghana) yamu), tote (meaning to carry), etc. entered English by way of Gullah.”…

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The Positive Use Of "Too Much" Or "Too + An Adjective" In West African Pidgin English

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post highlights the positive, highly complimentary use of the adverbial phrase "too much" or the adverbial phrases "too + an adjective" in Nigerian Pidgin English and Ghanaian Pidgin English.

The content of this post is presented for linguistic and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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BACKGROUND: NEGATIVE MEANINGS OF "TOO MUCH" OR TOO + AN ADJECTIVE IN STANDARD ENGLISH
From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/too_much
"Adverb
too much (not comparable)

To a greater extent than is wanted or required; excessively.
You talk too much.
To a sufficiently strong degree to prevent some other action from happening.
I'm not leaving now ... I'm enjoying myself too much!"

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"Too much" can also have negative meanings in West African Pidgin. Here's an example that I found on
http://www.nairaland.com/835696/nigerian-pidgin-english-meanings
"Re: Nigerian Pidgin English And Their Meanings by freecocoa(f): 4:19pm On Jan 03, 2012
"you dey talk plenty=talking too much"
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"dey"= "is/be" [definition from another commenter on the same page of that discussion thread]

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POSITIVE DEFINITION OF "TOO MUCH" - NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH
From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=too%20much
"better than the best [ above ___] ; [ extremely ----] = a high compliment; the best of the best
too much
Kiwi (New Zealand) slang for very impressive:
That new white convertible is too much bro!

#awesome#cool#great#wicked#fantastic
by Matt Bleck March 12, 2008

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POSITIVE DEFINITION OF "TOO MUCH" - NIGERIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH SITE
From http://www.naijalingo.com/words/too-much
"Too much
Definition: use to say ,when one is please with a job done by someone eles.use to complement someone Example: 1. Madam cook,you too much.
2. Dr. ,you too much if not for you,the boy for still lie down for bed.Thank you o!
Synonyms: Good,perfect"
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Here's my attempt at providing other positive [standard English] definitions for "too much": "the greatest"; "incomparable", "the best of the best"; "extraordinary".

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POSITIVE DEFINITIONS OF "TOO + AN ADJECTIVE"
Here's my attempt at providing positive definitions for too + an adjective (as used in in West African
Pidgin")*

"too" = "very" [or "exceptionally"; or "really" or "so"] + an adjective

*Disclaimer- I don't claim to be a speaker of West African pidgin. The little West African Pidgin that I know is from reading online articles and comments and watching YouTube videos.

Besides, I'm not sure if these adverbial phrases that are showcased in this post are actually examples of West African Pidgin.

Information and corrections are welcome.

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EXAMPLES OF THE POSITIVE USE OF "TOO MUCH" IN YOUTUBE COMMENT THREADS OR OTHER ONLINE WEBSITES
Pancocojams Editor's Note:
The idea for this post came to me after reading the comments in videos that I had radomly selected as part of my periodic habit of searching YouTube for videos of contemporary African singers.

I wouldn't be surprised if some other recent YouTube discussion threads for other highly regarded contemporary West African singers (and possibly contemporary singers from other regions of Africa) would probably also yield some examples of these "too much" or "too + an adjective" comments.

I'm interested in knowing if the West African (and other African regions?) linguistic usage of "too much" or "too + an adjective" as a superlative that I've documented in this post is recent, and, if so, when did if first occur? I'm also interested in knowing whether these usages are commonly found in Nigerian Pidgin English, and/or in Ghanaian Pidgin English, or elsewhere in Africa.
-snip-
Added October 10, 2017:
The Twi word "paa" highlighted below in Excerpt #2, example 2 is defined as "proper, really, very well, very good". Did the positive use of "too much" in these contemporary African music comments occur because commenters were translating Twi to English, and not because commenters were consciously changing the usual negative meaning of that English language adverbial phrase to something positive?
-end of October 10, 2017 addition-

**
These examples are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

The "too much" phrases are given in italics to highlight them in this post.

Excerpt #1:
From http://tyglobalist.org/onlinecontent/blogs/ghanas-pidgin/
..."Among friends you might hear the phrase “Komot for der”, translated into English it means “Go away/Vamoose!” but it is not as harsh as it sounds, it’s merely said in jest. Pidgin softens tones and commands; “Ohh make u horry ” does not quite carry the same imperativeness and commandeering tone as “Hurry up!” Even among educated people who speak English perfectly well, Pidgin is often spoken and preferred to English. It has a way of incorporating camaraderie that is hard to translate into words. But this is especially true of males, for it is much more common to find males speaking in Pidgin than females as it is not considered lady-like to speak Pidgin. I won’t go as far as calling it a case of gender inequality, but boys do use it to exclude girls from conversation as there is an assumption that we girls “jus no dey barb” (don’t understand) some phrases. But since Pidgin currently features prominently in our local music and in Ghanaian and Nigerian movies, we girls are catching on! So when we hear “Dis shoddy be fine paa/ She be betta girlie” (translates to – “The chick is really hot”) we know what they are saying.”...
-snip-
comment from emo, June 6, 2011
"Chale,u be too much.. This article make ma eye get roff. U be serious chick…lol

I’m really proud of u."
-snip-
"Chale" = "friend" [from "Ga" language in Ghana]

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Excerpt #2:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWzGhiBic4
Bisa Kdei - Atomesu feat. Paa Quesi (Official Video); BisaKdeiOfficial, Published on Mar 28, 2015
-snip-
Note: Bisa Kdei is a contemporary Ghanaian male singer.

1. Shismeck Dacosta, 2017
"Eeei ablekuma,anyaa & awoshie paa serious too much kdei keep it blazing"
-snip-
"paa" = adv. proper, really, very well, very good
"Twi" http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/English/Ghana%20English%20dictionary.pdf

**
Excerpt #3
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BO-2b8IdQ
Bisa kdei - Brother Brother (Official Video), BisaKdeiOfficial, Published on Nov 9, 2015
1. Kingsford Paul, 2016
"BISA,wo 3y3 too much

**
2. Evelyn atweri, 2016
"Ei!!!! Bisa you are too much"

**
3. puokyiene john, 2016
"i'm in love with dis song too much.

**
4. philip nduom yorke, 2016
"music too much"

**
5. Fred Gaster, 2016
"love this song bisa toooooooooomuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch"
-snip-
The additional letters strengthen (increase the intensity) of the word or words.

**
6. Portia Frimpomaa, 2016
"Bisa u be tooo much"

**
7. Naturally bea, 2016
"you are tooooo much bisa. I love u saaaaaaaaa. nice song and beautiful video too. u are wow😘😘😘"

**
8. Mezzack Boateng, 2016
"Nice one, bisa u are too much, keep the fire burning."

****
Excerpt #4:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwn_rfQD4Ew
Bisa Kdei - I Love You (Official Video), BisaKdeiOfficial, Published on Jan 20, 2015

1.Patience Ama Boakyewaa, 2016
"infact this guy is too much mwaaa"
-snip-
"This guy" = Ghanaian contemporary singer Bisa Kdei

****
Added October 10, 2017 [afternoon]
Excerpt #5:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ-_HIoEBE8
Aye - Davido (Official Music Video) by DMW HQ, Published on Feb 7, 2014
1. Emmanuela Ezekwemba, 2017
"I love my country i a Nigerian ,una to much"
-end of addition October 10, 2017

****
Excerpt #6: Added October 10, 2017 [evening]
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vC8qZILJE
P-Square Ft. Akon, May D - Chop My Money [Official video], officialpsquare, Published on Feb 23, 2012
1. FOXY J Eboyan, 2014
"EVER REIGNING MUSIC ,, AKON U ARE TOO MUCH"

**
2. wasco rappa, 2014
"tooooooooo much"

**
3.
Ultra Violet, 2014
"This song is really for naija and ghana girls. Lol We like money too much oooh!"

**
4. vicxsto1, 2014
"d love i get for u na jakichan, este cancion me canta mucho, i miss 9ja 2 much"
-snip-
American actor Jackie Chan had a cameo appearance in this P-Square music video.
-end of additions October 10, 2017 [evening]

****
EXAMPLES OF THE POSITIVE USE OF "TOO + AN ADJECTIVE" IN YOUTUBE COMMENT THREADS OR OTHER ONLINE WEBSITES
These examples are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

The "too + an adjective phrases are given in italics to highlight them in this post.

Excerpt #1:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6xCV3En_M
Chidinma - Fallen in Love [Official Video]; Chidinma Ekile, Published on Nov 16, 2016
-snip-
Note: Chidinma Ekile is a contemporary Nigerian female singer.

1.Khaddy Olukosi, 2017
"her smile and beauty can safe life 😍"
-snip-
"Her" = Nigerian Afro-Beat singer Chidinma

Another commenter“ asked if “safe” was supposed to be “save”. I think so.

**
Reply
2. Berlinda Debrah, 2017
"yes too great"

**
3. libgurl01, 2017
"Her beautiful voice and that extreme natural beauty. We African women are beautiful!"

**
Reply
4. Joseph Gatehi, 2017
"libgurl01 you are beautiful in an extra ordinary way, go girl."

**
Reply
5. Nadia ADOUOBO, 2017
"libgurl01 African women are really beautiful!"

**
Reply
6. Sari rosei, 2017
"libgurl01 yahhh we are tooo beautifull ppl with reall love from Eritera"

**
7. Karl Mackinza, 2017
"libgurl01 yes too beautiful"

**
Excerpt #2
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BO-2b8IdQ
Bisa kdei - Brother Brother (Official Video), BisaKdeiOfficial, Published on Nov 9, 2015
1. Renee Nyako, 2016
Bisa is too live!! on repeat constant

**
2. Gilbert Gadzekpo, 2016
"someone pls help delete my replay button. the beat is too soothing and addictive.

**
3. nauti312, 2016
"Kdei dammmmnnnn...... u r toooo gud.. very creative .... God bless U
-snip-
"gud"= "good"

**
4. Christopher Aryeh, 2016
"wow Kdei u are too gud

**
5. Oluwatobi Fatumo, 2017
"THIS IS JUST TOO NATURAL, TRULY AFRICA"

****
Excerpt #3: Added October 10, 2017 11:03 PM
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vC8qZILJE
P-Square Ft. Akon, May D - Chop My Money [Official video], officialpsquare, Published on Feb 23, 2012
1. maureen charles, 2014
"I like this song toooo badddd"
-end of addition October 10, 2017

****
Excerpt #4: Added October 11, 2017 [morning]
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=WKdh7YD-QS0 RANDS and NAIRAS - Emmy Gee ft AB Crazy & Dj Dimplez : OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Teamtalkless, Published on Jan 20, 2014
1. collo kiplangat, 2017
"i was teary after 00:20 like Africa we made it ... way too dope...mob love from kenya"

****
Excerpt #5: Added October 11, 2017 [morning]
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=WKdh7YD-QS0 RANDS and NAIRAS - Emmy Gee ft AB Crazy & Dj Dimplez : OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Teamtalkless, Published on Jan 20, 2014
1. ANDREW OJOK, 2014
"tooo baddas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-snip-
Note: This is a Hip Hop collaboration between artists from Nigeria and South Africa.WARNING: This video includes profanity.

**
2. gab uza, 2014
" "i know the money's coming i can feel it in my soul" #too fresh....."

**
3.
KrinO RoxX, 2014
"I gotta say this joint is f&&kin'* awesome.....ah the video is too dope"
-snip-
*This word was fully spelled out in this comment.

Commenters in this video's discussion thread used the African American Vernacular English word "dope" [meaning "very good"] far more than any other superlative.

****
Excerpt #6 Added October 11, 2017 [morning]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZN1obx0lR8 RANDS and NAIRA REMIX - Emmy Gee ft Ice Prince, Cassper Nyovest, Phyno, ANATII,Dj Dimplez,Ab Crazy
Teamtalkless, Published on Oct 23, 2014
1. Valli Yantolo, 2015
"Ice Prince went in too hard. hayi he is nice"
-snip-
Saying that someone "went in too hard" would probably be considered a negative in the USA, although "being hard" is something good in African American street culture, and by extension, other American urban cultures. However, the commenter following that statement up with "he is nice" shows that this is "went in too hard" is a compliment.

"Hayi" is a Xhosa word. In the context of this comment, I think it means "nevertheless" or "but". https://glosbe.com/xh/en/hayi. [Please correct this English translation if this is wrong.]

**
2. Nkosinathi Ngele, 2015
"Anatii, too dope"
-snip-
Anatli was one of the rappers who was featured on this track.

**
3. Chris Bonty, 2017
"ice prince is too much"
-snip-
Note: This is a Hip Hop collaboration between artists from Nigeria and South Africa.WARNING: This video includes profanity.

**


****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Information About & Examples Of Ghanaian Pidgin English (from 1992 dissertation)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series that presents information and examples of Ghanaian Pidgin English.

Part II presents another excerpt about Ghanaian Pidgin English from the 1992 dissertation that was written by Joe K. Y. B. Amoako (University of Florida). That excerpt includes examples of some Ghanaian Pidgin English words. Because that dissertation was published in 1992, it's possible that some of these words may no longer be used now (in 2017) or their meanings may have changed.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/10/excerpt-from-1992-dissertation-history.html for Part I of this series. Part I provides an excerpt from that dissertation about Ghanaian Pidgin English (GPE) from a 1992 dissertation that was written in 1992 by Joe K. Y. B. Amoako (University of Florida). A portion of this excerpt also provide information about the history & contemporary use of pidgin English in Nigeria.

The content of this post is presented for historical, linguistic, and cultural purposes.

Pancocojams present hyperlinked excerpts from online articles, books, and dissertations as a means of alerting people to these texts. Pancocojams visitors are encouraged to read these entire texts.

Thanks to Joe K. Y. B. Amoako for his research and writing and thanks for sharing this dissertation online and thanks to all others who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on West African Pidgin English. Click that link for more post in that series.

****
EXCERPT From https://archive.org/stream/ghanaianpidginen00amoa/ghanaianpidginen00amoa_djvu.txt
"GHANAIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH: IN SEARCH OF DIACHRONIC, SYNCHRONIC, AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC EVIDENCE

Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

By Joe K. Y. B. Amoako
December 1992

"[page] 53
CHAPTER 4
A PHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, SYNTACTIC, AND SEMANTIC SURVEY OF GHANAIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH

Introduction
Ghanaian Pidgin English (GPE) can be classified into two types: educated pidgin and uneducated pidgin. The
uneducated pidgin is also called "houseboy pidgin" or "motorpark pidgin". It is called uneducated pidgin because its speakers have not had any formal literacy education. Some of these uneducated people, who are mostly men, work in the houses of educated English speakers where they are called "houseboys". It is the type of pidgin that they speak that has been named after them. It is this same type of pidgin that is spoken at the car and lorry stations where passengers who do not own vehicles go for transportation to
travel with, hence the pidgin spoken there is called motorpark pidgin.

The other pidgin type is called educated pidgin because its speakers have had formal literacy education. Some people call it "intellectual pidgin" because of the same reason. This is the pidgin that is spoken by young people, especially the students of Ghana. Intellectual pidgin has been influenced by standard English. Over a range of continuum of the types of English spoken in Ghana,

[page] 54 [ no text

[page] 55
intellectual pidgin will be the closest to standard English whereas houseboy pidgin will be the farthest from standard English.

We should note that nowadays there is not too much difference between houseboy pidgin and intellectual pidgin because most of the GPE speakers have had some form of formal education because of the compulsory free education policy of the late 1950' s. The GPE that is being spoken these days is not as close to the houseboy pidgin that was spoken in the early 1950' s. It is a little bit inclined towards intellectual pidgin but not close to standard English. This has made some people think that Ghana does not have a pidgin that is original, but like any other language, GPE has been there for many years; it has just
changed. The type of GPE that will be analyzed in this chapter is a blend of houseboy pidgin and intellectual pidgin. This is the type of pidgin that one will most freguently hear if one visits Ghana.

Ghanaian Pidgin English is primarily a spoken medium of communication, with a very few poems and cartoons that can be found in the written medium. Like many other pidgins, GPE has no standardized orthography. This makes the analysis of the language a heinous task. There may be some oversimplifications or some overgeneralizations here and there. In order to minimize such dangers, the analysis of the language in this chapter has been taken from informants

[page] 56

of a homogeneous background (considering such parameters as the level of education, age, profession, exposure to standard English) . We have also taken into consideration the type of GPE which is common to most of the speakers, hence an item is chosen for discussion when it occurs very often in most of the conversations, songs, interviews, etc. which have been recorded. A word is selected as being a
representative of GPE if it occurs in both the uneducated pidgin and the educated one.

The linguistic change that has occurred in the derivation of GPE items from English will be discussed on
two planes: the form plane and the content plane. The form plane will cover the the phonological, morphological, and syntactic analysis, whereas the content plane will focus on the semantic analysis of these words. These are the shifts in meaning which have occurred in the English derived
lexicon of GPE.

Many definitions of pidgin include simplification of the superstrate language. In the case of GPE, I will not say that the superstrate has been simplified. I will rather say that GPE has has been influenced in many ways by the substrate languages which are Akan, Ga, Ewe, Nzema, and some of the other 45 native languages of Ghana. This influence is prevalent at the phonological, morphological, syntactic,
and semantic levels. Words and sentences from GPE will be compared with their counterparts from Akan which is the

[page] 57
Ghanaian language spoken by the author. Akan-influenced GPE is the most common one spoken in Ghana.

[...]

[page 75

Na go a de go skuul.

"It is going to school that I am doing."

Na mi de go skuul . "

"It is I going to school."

This na is also used in Akan as a focus marker, but it occurs immediately after the fronted constituent which is being focussed.

[...]

We are not claiming that this focus na which is used in other West African English pidgins originated from the Akan language. We have just shown that the same syntactic phenomenon do exist in Akan. Further research will have to be done for such a claim. What has been shown is the influence that some of the Ghanaian languages have on GPE.

[...]

[page] 78

Imperative

Imperative is an attempt by a speaker to elicit action from a hearer. In GPE this is done in two different ways:

One is by the use of the verb phrase alone without any subject; examples:

Go! "Go (away) !

Go tel am! "Go and tell him/her."

Go bnn dem! "Go and bring them."

The other way is by starting each command, request, or exhortation with the word "mek" ("make"). This one requires the mention of the subject which follows the imperative word "mek" . In most cases imperative with the copula verb uses this method; examples:

Mek yu go! "Go (away)! / (get away)!"

Mek yu go tel am! "Go and tell him/her!"

Mek yu go bri n dem! "Go and bring them!"

Mek yu tel am! "Tell him/her!"

Mek yu bnn dem! "Bring them!"

Mek yu bi gud ticha! "Be a good teacher!"

[...]

Interrogative

Interrogative is a request by a speaker of information from a hearer. There are two ways of expressing

[page] 79

interrogative in GPE. One is by changing the intonation of a statement, and the other is by using interrogative words.

STATEMENT QUESTION

A go skuul A go skuul

"I go/went to school." "I go/went to school?"

A fit go skuul A fit go skuul

"I can go to school." "Can I go to school?"

A no de fit go skuul A no de fit go skuul

"I can't go to school." "Can't I go to school?"

The word "wey" is often used for the guestion words "where", "when", "what", and "how". The words themselves are used in certain contexts.

Wey (tin) yu go du?
"What will you do?"

Wey i dey?

"Where is he/she?"

Wey i bi?

"Where is he/she?"

Wey i go kam?

"When will he/she come?"

Wey tarn i go kam?

"When will he/she come?"

Wey kal pcsm kam hie?
"Who comes/came here?"

The focus na is sometimes used with the guestion words. In this case na means "and", and it is used for emphasis depending upon the preceding statement by any of the interlocutors; e.g.

Na hu bi im?

"And who is he/she?" ("Who does he/she think he/she IS.)

[page] 80

The above question is an example of attitudinal question. This shows an attitude that the questioner has
about the third person. The questioner may have an unhealthy attitude about the third person perhaps the one being talked about has been very boastful, or has been blowing his or her own horn.

[...]

Exclamations and Emphasis

Exclamations and emphasis in GPE are commonly conveyed by the addition of particular words or expressions either at the beginning or at the end of a proposition, and are always expressed with the appropriate intonation. Prolonged sounds which are vowels like oo or aa are added to expressions to emphasize the emotional concern of the speaker.

Plenti palava kam oo .

"There's lots of trouble! / We've got real trouble!"

I had oo .

"It is very hard / difficult / trying!"

I fan pr^pa .

"It / He / She is very nice / handsome / beautiful!"

I veks prrpa .

"He / she is very angry!"

I gud tuu mpch .

[...]

[page] 84

[...]

Complementizer "sey" Verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, remembering, and sensing are followed by the complementizer "sey" ("that") . This complementizer might come from the Akan language which uses "se" ("that") in the same syntactic position (Holm 1988:186; Turner 1949:201; Cassidy 1961:63).

AKAN

Joe ka-a se. z>-be-ba.

Joe say-PAST that he-will-come

"Joe said that he will come."

GPE

Joe tz>k sey i go kam.

"Joe said that he will come."

AKAN

Me-nim se. Joe be-ba.
I-know that Joe will-come
"I know that Joe will come.

GPE

A sabi sey Joe go kam.

"I know that Joe will come."

[...]

[page] 86
Semantics of Some G.P.E. Words
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. Although the basic vocabulary of GPE comes from English, some of these words have acquired different or additional meanings. GPE also has loan translations or caiques which have been made from some of the Ghanaian languages. There are some words which have been borrowed from Portuguese, Yoruba, Hausa, and some of the Ghanaian languages. These words have retained their original meanings. The above semantic phenomena will be discussed in this section. Since many of the word and sentence meanings to be described are affected in one way or the other by caique, it will be appropriate for us to know how Bynon has defined caique.

In loan translation or caique (literally "tracing", "copy"), the form and meaning of a foreign word,
instead of being carried over into the recipient language as a unit is merely employed as a model for a
native creation. For this to be possible it must be both morphologically complex and semantically
transparent, and the process consists in substituting for each of its morphs the semantically closest morph in the recipient language and combining these according to its own native rules of word-formation. Thus while the choice of constituent morphs and the overall meaning of the new construct will be modelled on the foreign source, the constituent elements themselves and the rules governing their combination will be native (Bynon, 1983:232)

Plas The word "plas" which means "and" or "add/addition" has maintained these meanings in GPE and has
acquired the new meaning "with", which is unique to GPE.

[page] 87

The following examples from the recordings we made will make this meaning clear.

plas P'with'n

Yu shu => sey a de go y=> haws plas yu? Mi, dos hu

de go awt plas mi a no de go dem haws plas dem.

"Are you sure that I am going to your house with you?
For me, those who go out with me, I don't go to their
house with them."

[...]

MALE (SPEAKING STANDARD) : How did you pick up pidgin
English?

FEMALE (SPEAKING GPE) : Aaa, a no sabi oo. Wey a dey skuul a rid sayans so de b:=ys wey a de stadi
plas dem nu dem as spik pijin so a pik am welwel.

MALE: "How did you pick up pidgin English?"
FEMALE: "Well, I don't know. When I was in school I read science and all the boys whom I was studying
with spoke pidgin so I picked it up easily."

[...]

plas ("and'n

Mek yu go Volta Region Students Union plas Western Region Students Union.

"Go to the Volta Region Students Union and the Western Region Students Union."

Wey yu get ted yi a a, onli yu de konsentreyt fo yo i 3n ese plas yz> kos.

"If you get to third year, you only concentrate on your long essay and your course work."

[page] 88

We observe from the above examples that GPE, like many other Creoles and pidgins, uses the same word " plas " for both "with" and "and". Akan uses the word "ne" ([ni]) for both words in the same way that " plas " is used above in GPE.

Sef The word "sef" ("self") has retained its reflexive meaning in GPE. It has acguired another meaning which is a caique from the Ghanaian languages. This meaning is "even" as an intensive element to emphasize the identity or character of somebody or something. It follows the constituent that is being emphasized. The constituent can be a word, phrase, or sentence. This syntactic structure is akin to that of Akan in which the words mpo or koraa are used. The following example which shows this meaning of "sef" at the word level is part of a discourse by a lady who said she was fed up with Education as a course.

AKAN

Onyame mpo nim se m-a-bre

God even knows that I-PERF-tire

"Even God knows that I am tired."

GPE

God sef sabi sey a taya.

God even knows that I tire

"Even God knows that I am tired."

GPE

God sef sabi sey a taya.

God even knows that I tire

"Even God knows that I am tired."

[...]

Sometimes some speakers make the emphasis stronger by using both "sef" and "koraa" in the same sentence. At times "self" is replaced with "koraa". In the following example "Tamale Real United" and "Hearts" ("Hearts of Oak") are Ghanaian soccer teams.

Tamale sef koraa . Real United koraa . dey de tie ("tear") Hearts oo.

"Even Tamale, even Real United are beating Hearts."

Chop in GPE, the word "chop" ("chop") does not have the same meaning it has in standard English. "Cut" or "fell" will be used in that sense. Instead "chcp" is used with the meanings it has from the Ghanaian languages which are "eat/ feed", "spend", "squander", "food", and the derogatory way of saying that a man makes love to a woman. Some speakers use fz>k, for the last meaning. Some even use "monch" which sounds milder. Some speakers also use "cho" which is the clipped form of "chop", and some use "chos" for

[page] 91
food. In Akan, the word for "chop" is "di" . The following Akan phrases show how "di" is used.

AKAN

di aduane
di sika
di buronya
di afoofi
di asem
di obaa

'eat food"
'spend/ squander money"
'spend Christmas"
'spend holiday/vacation"
'settle a case"
'make love to a woman (derogatory) "

[...]

Peyn The usage of "peyn" ("pain") in GPE is not limited to distress and suffer. It also means disturb and
jealousy .

A: I go sit dawn, chop kenke mek sombodi kam bit am
B: I bi im de peyn mi.

A: "He will sit down, eat kenkey, and let somebody

come and beat him (talking about a boxer) "
B: "That's what disturbs me."

Swiyt The word "swiyt" ("sweet") has some additional meanings in GPE. It means "sweet", "pleasant", "nice", "enjoyable", "good", "swollen headed", etc. This phenomenon

[page] 93

is also similar to that of the Ghanaian languages where one word has all the above meanings. In Akan. "de" has all the above meanings.

[...]

[page] 94

Kwench The meaning of "kwench" ("quench") is "put out" or "extinguish", but in GPE this meaning is extended to include "stop" and "suffer".

A no sabi dc tin wey i kwe nch di s program. A no sabi de risin way dey kwench am.

"I don't know the thing that stopped this program. I don't know the reason why they stopped it."

Mek yu no won oo

Wan dey, wan dey wi =d go enjoy, en de rich pipul dey go kwench .

"Don't worry One day, we'll all enjoy, And the rich people will suffer . "

If yu no yus yo hed, yu go kwench .

"If you don't use your brains, you'll suffer . "

Jelosi go sheym, Wayo tuu go kwench .

"The jealous one will be ashamed, The trickster too will suffer ."

Kach Other meanings that "kach" ("catch") has in GPE are "be at", "reach", and "enough".

Tumorow a fo kach Accra.

"Tomorrow I should be in Accra."

[...]

[page] 95

Grow When a GPE speaker tells you that you are a grown person he or she means you are an old person.

De womal i grow ? I grow pas Doggie?

"Is the woman old? Is she older than Doggie?"

I grow smo. i mek ova teti .

"He/She is a little old. He/she is over thirty."

Yus Another meaning of "yus" ("use") in GPE apart from its traditional meanings is "good" or "nice".

Fes taym wey wi de pey nayn f i f ti -eit nu a, a ti nk sey 1 yus; bik^s naw wi de pey omos fayf handred sidis, wey, dat's f^ lojm alown; wey a ti nk sey i no yus .
Dey de chit wi.

Grow When a GPE speaker tells you that you are a grown person he or she means you are an old person.

De womal i grow ? I grow pas Doggie?

"Is the woman old? Is she older than Doggie?"

I grow smo. i mek ova teti .

"He/She is a little old. He/she is over thirty."

Yus Another meaning of "yus" ("use") in GPE apart from its traditional meanings is "good" or "nice".

Fes taym wey wi de pey nayn f i f ti -eit nu a, a ti nk sey 1 yus; bik^s naw wi de pey omos fayf handred sidis, wey, dat's f^ lojm alown; wey a ti nk sey i no yus . Dey de chit wi.

"First time when we were paying nine fifty-eight, I think that it was good, because now we are paying
almost five hundred cedis which is for lodging; lodging alone, which I think that it is not good. They are
cheating us."

Rap In GPE, "rap" means "to talk to somebody to convince him or her". A man raps a woman by trying to woo
her; or an offender raps his or her boss to avoid punishment.

[...]

Words from Other Languages

English supplies the bulk of the vocabulary of GPE. A few loan words have been borrowed other languages. Among the European languages, Portuguese is a major contributor to the loan words in GPE. Some of these Portuguese words are sabj. (know) , pikin (a child) , dash (gift, give a present) , and palava/palaba (guarrel) .

GPE contains words from other West African languages, especially Hausa and Yoruba. Some of the words from Yoruba are aga (master, superior) , and ovibo (a white man or a light-skinned person) . There are more words from Hausa than from Yoruba because many Ghanaians speak Hausa, whereas only a few speak Yoruba. Some of the words borrowed from Hausa are wayo (tricks, trickster), vanoa or nvanoa (vanity), iara (bonus), and wahala (trouble) .

Some words in GPE come from Ghanaian native languages; from Akan are die (as for ...), paa (very), koraa (even), na (and, it's), etc; and from Ga is cho (very)."...

****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series about Excerpts of Ghanaian Pidgin English from a 1992 dissertation.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Excerpt From A 1992 Dissertation - History & Contemporary Use Of Pidgin English In Ghana & In Nigeria

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that presents information and examples of Ghanaian Pidgin English.

This post provides an excerpt from a dissertation about Ghanaian Pidgin English (GPE) that was written in 1992 by Joe K. Y. B. Amoako (University of Florida). A portion of this excerpt also provide information about the history & contemporary use of pidgin English in Nigeria.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/10/information-about-examples-of-ghanaian.html for Part II of this series. Part II presents another excerpt about Ghanaian Pidgin English from the 1992 dissertation that was written by Joe K. Y. B. Amoako (University of Florida). That excerpt includes examples of some Ghanaian Pidgin English words. Because that dissertation was published in 1992, it's possible that some of these words may no longer be used now (in 2017) or their meanings may have changed.

The content of this post is presented for historical, linguistic, and cultural purposes.

Pancocojams present hyperlinked excerpts from online articles, books, and dissertations as a means of alerting people to these texts. Pancocojams visitors are encouraged to read these entire texts.

Thanks to Joe K. Y. B. Amoako for his research and writing and thanks for sharing this dissertation online.

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EXCERPT From https://archive.org/stream/ghanaianpidginen00amoa/ghanaianpidginen00amoa_djvu.txt
"GHANAIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH: IN SEARCH OF DIACHRONIC, SYNCHRONIC, AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC EVIDENCE

Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

By Joe K. Y. B. Amoako
December 1992

[...]

[page] viii
The study consists of six chapters which deal with the definitions and etymologies of pidgin and Creole, the history of West African Pidgin English, the methodology of the research, history of GPE, a detailed linguistic analysis of GPE, the sociolinguistics of GPE, as well as conclusions on the survey.

Data were collected on GPE over a period of nine months. Out of the 400 copies of questionnaire distributed, 3 04 were retrieved. This period was also used in tape- recording interviews, conversations, and songs, as well as collecting magazines and newspapers. The informants who consisted of both sexes ranged from school children to a secretary of state.

The survey shows that there is a pidgin English in Ghana, and that it has been influenced by the substrate
languages. It is spreading fast, especially among the youths because it is being used not only as a means of communication but also as a means of solidarity."

[...]

[page] 7
Summary [Chapter 1; Definition Of Pidgin]

"In this chapter, we have attempted to deal with the definitions of pidgin and Creole languages. Pidgin evolves when people who do not understand each other's language meet and they want to communicate verbally. This is the social definition of pidgin. The structural definition states that pidgin has a reduced language structure which means that its phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics are simpler
than those of the language or languages that it may evolve from. By definition pidgin does not have native speakers.

Pidgin becomes creole when it acquires a native speaker. The linguistic structure of a creole is more complex than that of pidgin. Ghanaian Pidgin English (GPE) which is the topic of this work has no opportunity of being creolized in the near future, because the Ghanaian children have access to one or more of the 45 Ghanaian local languages.

[page] 8
Moreover GPE is not a popular language in the homes of its speakers. This means GPE will remain a pidgin for a long time to come."

[...]

[page] 9
CHAPTER 2
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF PIDGIN ENGLISH IN WEST AFRICA AND ITS CURRENT STATUS

Introduction
This chapter contains two subsections. The first section deals with the step-by-step history of pidgin
English in West Africa; we will discuss how Portuguese, Dutch, and British have contributed toward pidgin English in West Africa. The second section deals with an enumeration of the principal pidgin English varieties in West Africa, which are Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cameroon.

A Step-bv-Step History of Pidain English in West Afrina

The exact date of the development of an English-based pidgin in West Africa cannot be determined. It probably began with the first contacts with the British in the sixteenth century (Mafeni 1971:97; Spencer 1971:8). Before the British built their first English fort at Cormantine on the Gold Coast in 1631, the Portuguese, who were followed by the Dutch, had traded with the people of West Africa and had made some impact on the linguistics of this area.

[...]

[page] 21
pidgin English in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, and Ghana.

Nigeria

The area that is now coastal Nigeria never had forts built by the Europeans for the slave trade. Although the Portuguese began the traffic in slaves in this area early on, much of the coast from Nigeria to Cameroon was relatively ignored by the Europeans, partly because of its difficult conditions (Tonkin 1971:143). However, the growing demand for slaves in the eighteenth century drove slavers further eastward to the lagoons of what is today Lagos and the creeks of the "Rivers" at the mouth of the Niger. Here the Europeans could anchor their vessels for the brief period needed to load the slaves that the African
traders kept ready for them (Osae et al. 1973:180). By the end of the eighteenth century Bonny and Calabar on the Bight of Biafra had become two of the most important trading ports.

The British made the slave trade illegal in 1807, and their navy patrolled this area to enforce the new law; however, trade in palm oil and other goods remained important. Protestant missionaries from England and Sierra Leone began coming to this area in the 1840s and were welcomed as teachers of arithmetic and English (Tonkin 1971:144). Britain annexed Lagos in 1861, the Rivers in 1885, and then all of Nigeria in 1900. Although Nigeria

[page] 22

retained English as its official language after independence in 1960 and a knowledge of the standard variety is essential for higher education and socioeconomic advancement, Pidgin still plays a major role in interethnic communication in linguistically heterogeneous urban centers, particularly in the south (Mafeni 1971:99).

Nigerian Pidgin English is a lingua franca for many, and thus a true pidgin in Hall's sense; it is also a mother tongue for a number of families in certain areas and communities, and as such might in these cases be defined as a Creole language (ibid. 95). Mafeni describes how the Creole English has emerged in Nigeria like this:
Inter-tribal and international marriages have become increasingly common in urban society. In many such
cases husband and wife may not share a common indigenous language, and as a result will often use Pidgin as their chief meduim of communication in the home; or, of course, Pidgin alongside standard English.
Children brought up in such homes naturally speak Pidgin, sometimes alongside standard English, as their
first language, although they may also speak the native language (s) of either or both parents. The children therefore learn to operate several linguistic systems, of which Pidgin is one of them; and in many cases it may be the primary and predominant system. However, even where both parents speak the same native language, many urban and partially detribalized children learn Pidgin very early although it is not the language of the home. Often several families live in the same compound, and if they differ in linguistic background Pidgin serves as a convenient lingua franca. The children in such compounds and neighborhoods find Pidgin an efficient means of communication among themselves, and may also use it at home even though their parents may not approve. (ibid. 98)

According to Mafeni, some Nigerians have two types of pidgin. The majority of servants employed by European

[page] 23
families use two quite different varieties of pidgin; one, a minimal variety, which they use to their employers — and which is the only kind of pidgin which most Europeans come across — and a fuller variety, pidgin proper, which they use elsewhere. Many Nigerians, although use pidgin as a register in certain, especially familiar, contexts, are nevertheless ashamed to be associated with the language in public. This is probably a result of the influence of parents and school authorities, who have often discouraged
its use because they consider it a debased form of English and not a language in its own right (ibid. 99).

Nigerians use their pidgin in variety of ways, in spite of the traditional attitudes of disapproval towards the language. Many Nigerian novelists, playwrights, advertising agents, trade unionists and even politicians have realized and are exploiting the great potentialities of the language as a medium of mass communication. The various broadcasting corporations in Nigeria have done much to popularize pidgin
by allowing its use in advertisement; the NBC radioserial "Save Journey" has been running with great success for a number of years; Achebe and other writers have used pidgin in their novels and poems (ibid. 100).

[...]

[page] 34
"CHAPTER 3
GHANAIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH: IN SEARCH OF CURRENT AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Research Background

Considerable misinformation has been circulated about Ghanaian Pidgin English. Some Ghanaians attribute the worsening of standard English to the emergence of pidgin English.

[...]

But pidgin English is serving a very important purpose which many critics overlook. It serves as an important medium of communication. It is spoken on a wide scale in educational institutions, work places, airports, seaports, drinking places, markets, on the radio, in popular songs, on political platforms, and on many occasions. It is spoken by both literate and illiterate people. Most importantly, pidgin English is becoming the lingua franca in English speaking West Africa countries.

[...]

English has been the official language of Ghana since Britain colonized the Gold Coast (now Ghana) by the bond of 1844. This was the bond which made the Gold Coast a British colony. English was imposed as the language of administration by the British; their immediate practical aim being to bring together the separate political units which they had won either by conquest or treaty (Boadi 1971:49). After Ghana had its independence from the British rule in 1957, English is still a cohesive force internally. The
adoption of one of the 45 local languages as the lingua franca has not been easy and is not envisaged. This has made the English language the most obvious choice for both internal and external uses (ibid. 50). We may distinguish between educated and uneducated varieties of English in Ghana even though there is a graded continuum between them.

[...]

Ghanaian Pidgin English dates from the time the British set foot on the coast of the Gold Coast. It was limited to a relatively small and identifiable section of the population, mostly illiterate workers of various categories, almost exclusively from the northern sector of the colonial territory. These workers were mainly those who served in

[page] 42
various capacities directly under mostly English but also some Ghanaian and other African "masters" who needed some means of communication with them.

Pidgin gradually arose through simplifications of the structure of standard English and adaptation to native languages among these categories of workers. They tried to reproduce what they heard and retained of the fast speech of the English masters, or the Ghanaian and Asian masters.

The categories of people who learned this kind of simplified English were:

Police corporals . They were employed as guards at the courts, offices, parliament, "people's" houses, and other government places. "People" in this sense means the expatriates and high-ranking government officials who gualified to employ a guard.

Watchmen . These were employed in government departments and private houses. They were security officers who watched the houses and office buildings of the government as well as those of some private
individuals.

Laborers. They were employed in government departments -usually daily rated — like Public Works Department, Water Works, Electricity, and Housing.

Domestic staff . The domestic staff, who in those days were invariably male, were cooks, steward boys, and garden boys. They were usually called "small boys" by their employers. They in turn called their employers "masters",

[page] 43
hence the popular expression in Ghana: "Yes sa, masa." ("Yes sir, master.") It was usual for a visitor to ask: "Masa dey?" (Is your master present?) , and the reply: "I dey" (He's present) or "I no dey." (He isn't present).

The reason for the employment of these categories of workers from the northern part of Ghana was to promote the undivided loyalties to their employer, since they did not have their families with them in the south; even in the north, they could be far away from their own villages.

In the northern part of Ghana, the people were late in receiving formal education. That is why the employees from the North were some of the first speakers of Ghanaian Pidgin English.

Second World War

In our survey, sixteen informants, or 5% Of the respondents, mentioned the second World War as one of the
events that have contributed to the emergence of pidgin English in Ghana. This is especially true of the older respondents because of their association with the war.

Soldiers of the Gold Coast Regiment fought alongside their British counterparts during the Second World War (1939-1945) . They served as porters for the British soldiers. These porters were illiterates; hence in their efforts to communicate with their British counterparts Pidgin English evolved. These soldiers returned to Ghana with the Pidgin English. Some of them joined the Armed

[page] 44

Forces and others retired to live among the civilian population. A retired soldier informed us that formerly every soldier was made to learn pidgin English since it is the language used to drill soldiers on parade and training grounds. A police officer at a training depot also told us that police recruits are made to learn pidgin for the same reason. The trainers are illiterates and the English they know is the pidgin type. This training started with those who went to the Second World War.

[...]

Pidgin English has been used in the Ghanaian news media since the 1950s. There was a column in the "Evening News" - an evening newspaper — which was strictly reserved for the use of pidgin English. It was used to present vernacular jokes.

[page] 45

There was a radio program done in pidgin English in the 1950s called "Isa Abongo" by the late Leo Riby-Williams. In the 1960s there was a television comedy series also done in pidgin English. These were comedy programs meant to entertain the rank and file - mostly illiterate workers who would be expected to understand or speak pidgin English and so appreciate such programs in pidgin.

Contrary to the assumption that the majority of illiterate workers from all over the country spoke and
understood pidgin English and so would welcome such programs, it turned out that pidgin English was limited to only a small section of the population and that the rest would better enjoy programs in one of the local Ghanaian languages. The radio and television programs were therefore withdrawn after a short run; and eventually, through audience research survey, programs like Variety Show Case in Akan, Ga, Ewe, and other Ghanaian languages were substituted. These were and are much enjoyed by all sections of the population.

Sey (1973:3) says that with many educated people in the large towns it was not necessary for the illiterate people to deal directly with the English speakers for bilingual educated Ghanaians were always at hand to act as interpreters and "letter-writers" for the uneducated ones. This was one of the reasons why Ghanaian Pidgin English could not spread.

[page] 46

Current Emergence of Ghanaian Pidgin English: Factors

Within the past ten or twenty years, that is, from the early 1970s, it has been noticed by the informants in this survey that more Ghanaians are speaking pidgin English than in the 1950s and 1960s.

[...]

[page] 48
Contact with Other West African States

The main reason given for the fast spreading of the Ghanaian Pidgin English within the past twenty years is the recent increase of contacts between Ghanaians and other West African states where pidgin English is spoken on a wider scale. These countries are Liberia, Sierra Leone, and especially Nigeria. This increase is evidenced by the responses of informants to the question: "Which events have contributed toward the introduction and spread of pidgin English?" Out of 304 questionnaires, 236 informants responded to that question, 77.6% of the total survey. Out of the 236 respondents 127, that is, 53.8% mentioned
immigration of Ghanaians to other West African countries.

The Nigerian Influence

Of the 127 respondents who mentioned immigration as a factor to the current spread of Ghanaian Pidgin English, 105, that is 82.6%, said that Nigeria has been responsible.

Pidgin English is spoken everywhere in Nigeria. The writer spent three months in Lagos in 1981, and found that Nigerians speak standard English only on rare occasions in private conversations. Otherwise, they speak either one of the Nigerian languages or pidgin English.

The oil boom brought economic improvement to Nigeria in the early 1970s, and people from many countries, including Ghana, immigrated there. Both skilled and unskilled Ghanaian workers went to Nigeria to look for green pastures.

[page] 49

They spent their holidays in Ghana, and often took whatever they acquired to Ghana. One important thing they brought back to Ghana was pidgin English.

In the early 1980s, many Ghanaians and other foreign nationals were expelled from Nigeria. These returnees
raised the use of pidgin English in Ghana to its ascendancy.

[...]

[page] 51
Other Factors

One important factor which has contributed to the spread of GPE is illiteracy. In 1980, only 30% of the adult population in Ghana were literate and 69% of school age persons were literate. Yet only 20 out of the 236, that is 8.5%, respondents attributed the spread of GPE to illiteracy and lack of formal education. Nonetheless, this is an important factor, since a small country like Ghana (Area:
238,537 sq. km.) with nearly 14 million people has 44 languages (refer to Appendix B for the Ghana Language Map) and none of them is the national language. This fact compels people to use English as the means of communication in inter-language conversation. The illiterate ones, therefore, have to recourse to pidgin English.

Military regimes in Ghana have also contributed to the spread of pidgin English. Ghana has had four long-term military regimes in the country's history. The 12 respondents (5% of the group) who mentioned this factor said that the military regimes have brought the soldiers into the streets and involved them in the day-to-day life of the civilian population. The civilians have therefore been imitating the pidgin English which most of the soldiers speak.

[...]

[page] 52

Other factors for the spread of GPE are trade, boarding schools, urbanization, prisoners, and the increasing number of magazines which feature pidgin English, and the increasing interest in reading such magazines.

[...]

[page] 142
Summary

This chapter is a further demonstration of the assertion that pidgin is spoken in Ghana. We have discussed

[page] 143
the speakers of Ghanaian Pidgin English and the places where the language is spoken. The major speakers are males, students, military and police personnels, youngsters, co-workers, and friends. Educational institutions, urban areas, work places, lorry stations, military and police barracks, and entertainment places are the most obvious places where one will hear GPE. The usage of GPE is mostly in the spoken mode. There is little usage of GPE in the written mode. There is no book that has been written entirely in GPE. Authors like Kofi Anyidoho and Ayi Kwei Armah have included a page or two of GPE in their works. The major written usage of GPE that has received greater attention of the reading public is found in the comics of
Mugu Yaro, Baba Dogo, and Gyato. Speakers of GPE use it for communication, entertainment, politics, socialization, and fun. The attitude of Ghanaians toward GPE is not encouraging. Many people do not want the language to be spoken or written. Their major reason for opposing the usage of GPE is that it has some adverse effects on both the written and spoken usages of standard English. Most Ghanaians say that GPE should not be encouraged.

The methodology used for this research might have contributed toward the negative attitude towards GPE. The respondents claim not to like to speak pidgin because the survey was part of an education project where they expected researchers not to like pidgin. Perhaps they have applied

[page] 144
an argumentum ad populum policy, that is, telling the researchers what they want to hear."

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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams post that presents excerpts of a 1992 dissertation about Ghanaian Pidgin English.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

What Kiss Teeth (Suck Teeth) Means

Written by Azizi Powell

People don't always have to say what they're thinking. Sometimes body gestures and sounds such as "kiss teeth" say what they want to say and more.

I'm an African American woman from New Jersey & Pennsylvania. Although my maternal grandparents are from the islands (Barbados and Trinidad), I wasn't familiar with the phrase "kiss teeth" until I started reading about it on the Internet. But ever since I was a child I knew about "sucking your teeth". That phrase is often expressed in the warning "Don't suck your teeth at me!"

The phrase "suck your teeth" is documented as early as 1915 in Jamaica and is also found in Barbados, Belize, and Guyana, Trinidad, and the United States (particularly among African Americans). In Tobago, kiss teeth is called "hiss teeth" and in the Cayman Islands it is called "sucking your mouth". Source: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/papers/KSTpapwww.pdf The Meaning Of Kiss Teeth

"Kiss" and "hiss" are onomatopoeic “[that’s the sound you make when doing it].

In the Caribbean kiss teeth is represented by the initials "KST" (kiss teeth) and "KMT" (kiss my teeth). Among people from the Caribbean, kiss teeth can be represented in writing using the words "Cho!", "Chups", "Tchuipe, "Chupes", "Stchuup”, and similarly spelled words. These words are both nouns and verbs.

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UPDATE - June 6, 2013

Here's a video of the sound made when a person is "sucking" his [or her] teeth"

Tjoerie - NO CANDY



No Candy, Published on Dec 5, 2012

A well deserved ode to the tjoerie. The what?!? The tjoerie, which is the Surinamese word for what is known in the French West Indies as 'le tchip' and in the English speaking part of the Caribbean as 'kiss-teeth'.

When something or someone becomes too annoying, one always has an effective weapon at their disposal: a long, cricket-like sound of which the effect combined with rolling eyes is deadly insulting. There is no one that does not respect a good tjoerie.

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UPDATE: June 17, 2016

Here's another video about "kissing your teeth":
KISSING YOUR TEETH!?



V a r i n d e r Published on Jun 6, 2016

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS SARCASTIC

Today's word of the day is less of a word and more of a sound. I've heard this sound used mostly when people aren't happy about something, it's referred to as "kissing teeth". To be honest, while filming this video, the sound got annoyingly addictive, it's kind of...fun? lol
..
But at the same time, use caution with this word, it doesn't have the best connotation because me and everyone I know agree that when they've heard it used, it was in a negative light...

Blog: https://varinderpaul.wordpress.com/portfolio/.
-snip-
End of Updates.

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlg5o2gyfrU
You Know You're Jamaican When... Celebrating JAMAICA's 50th

Examples of kiss teeth are shown in that video at 1:45 - 1:46 and at 2:15 - 2:33.

Notice the neck roll and cut eye (rolling eye) movement that usually accompanied kiss teeth.

Researchers have documented KMT in West Africa, as well as in the Caribbean, and in certain South American nations which have significant populations of people of African descent. Of course, KST is also found in other nations such as the United Kingdom where there are Caribbean, African American, and African residents.

KMT can convey a wide range of emotions including (in no particular order) disgust, disdain, defiance, exasperation, annoyance, displeasure, disrespect, scorn, insult, sorrow, impatience, disagreement, disapproval, dislike, and vexation.

Here's a quote about "chupse" (kiss teeth) that is included in this previously mentioned pdf
The Meaning Of Kiss Teeth
Esther Figueroa (USA) Peter L Patrick (UK)

The chupse is not a word, it is a whole language. There is the small effortless chupse of indifference; the thin hard chupse of disdain; the long, liquid, vibrating chupse that shakes the rafters and expresses every kind of defiance. It is the universal language of the West Indies, the passport to confidence from Jamaica to British South America. How dare the compiler downgrade it to a mere word!(from the “Barbados Advocate”, quoted in Collymore, 1970)

-snip-
Here's a review of the book "Cut-Eye" and "Suck-Teeth":African Words and Gestures in New World Guise by John R. Rickford and Angela E. Rickford:

An investigation questioned whether the words and gestures "cut-eye" and "suck-teeth," evident in Guyana, represent African survivals, and how widely these are recognized in the Caribbean, the United States and Africa. Caribbean data were drawn from observations, dictionaries and interviews. U.S. data came from questionnaires administered to both blacks and whites. African students were also questioned. In Guyana, "cut-eye" is a visual gesture indicating hostility or disapproval. A glare is delivered followed by a vertical or diagonal sweep of the eye over the other person. "Cut-eye" insults by visually invading another's territory and turning away contemptuously. The gesture was familiar to all West Indians interviewed. In the U.S., nearly all black informants were familiar with the term, but few of the whites. All African informants recognized the gesture. "Suck-teeth" refers to the gesture of drawing in air through the teeth to produce a sucking sound. It expresses anger, exasperation or annoyance, and is stronger and ruder than "cut-eye." It is known throughout the Caribbean, by black Americans, though not by whites, and by Africans. The study provides evidence that Africanisms persist in the New World even in commonplace expressions and gestures. (CHK)

-snip-
Here are some responses to a 2007 Yahoo answers question: Why do some black people "suck their teeth"

Hi, I'm Jamaican. In Jamaica we call it "Kiss teet" (kiss teeth).

We do it to show our disapproval, disagreement and/or anoyance.

If someone p*sses you off you do it, if someone says something stupid you do it, if you see someone you don't like you do it.

It means "Whatever man, I don't care what you think, you're talking crap, talk all you like I'm not listening" It's showing your disapproval.

:-) We incorporate this into our internet lingo. The internet slang for this is KMT (which means: kiss my teeth).
-honest

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It's actually coined "smacking the lips." And I do it when someone is saying something stupid, being fake, if I don't think someone is being honest, when i'm calling someone's bluff, brushing someone off etc.

Hope that helped.
-Cesaria Barbarossa

**
Its not just the black people that suck their teeth its allot of teenagers do it two and Its sorta like an irritated way of saying its stupid,waste of tI'me, and im not doing it kinda thing
-champ

**
It's just an expression to show that what has been said is a load of crap, like when I read your question I skinned teeth big time.
-maxwell

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Update: October 12, 2017- A West African version of "suck teeth" [which might be the source of that custom]

From https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101212052102AAEDgcX
"What is the meaning of mtchew?
It s a written expression made when someone is displeased, or when their expectations is lowered. Also called "sucking teeth"
Clint, 2015"

**
From http://www.naijalingo.com/words/mtcheew
"Mtcheew

Definition: a popular sigh of disapproval in Nigeria, (maybe West Africa). The sound can be heard when one sticks his tongue to the roof of the mouth and ties to suck in air. Just like germans use 'Scheiss' Example: Mtcheew... poor man, I even think say you carry money come."
-snip-
Here's another example of the use of the Nigerian (West African ?) Pidgin English word "mitchew"
from http://www.nairaland.com/3011672/daniella-okeke-marks-birthday-dazzling/1
"Re: Daniella Okeke Marks Birthday With Dazzling Photos by abdoolorunwa(m): 3:24pm On Mar 26, 2016
...O BOY U DEY LOOK UP TO BABA MAKE HIM MAKE U UP, NO MIRACLE FIT CHANGE THIS UR STONE FACE. IF U NO FYN, NO DEY USE UR PICS DEY SPOIL MY MOOD ABEG. I DEY BEG U AND UR TYPE ABEG. AH AH WHICH KAIN THING BE THIS. U JUST MAKE ME VOMIT SPOIL MY RUG NOW. MTTCHEWWW!!!"
-snip-
Here's my attempted interpretation of this comment: [Corrections welcome]
I think that in the first part of this quote, the commenter criticizes the person he or she is addressing by saying that that person professes to look up to Fathr [God]. Then the commenter says (using an African American way of speaking] God need to "fix" that person [Make up up], but actually no miracle would fix that person's hard hearted being [stone face]. Then the commenter basically says "If you don't like the actress, then don't post any pictures of her because they spoil my [good] mood. I'm asking you and people like you this. Ah, Ah, [expresses exasperation] What can this thing be?! You just made me vomit on my rug now. Mitchewww!! [suck teeth expression]


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RELATED LINKS
Cut-Eye and Suck-Teeth: African Words and Gestures in New World Guise Author(s): John R.Rickford and Angela E. Rickford Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol.89, No. 353 (Jul. - Sep., 1976), pp. 294-309 Published by: American FolkloreSociety Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/539442Accessed:
**

Dillard:perspectives on American English Csl 29
By Joey Lee Dillard
http://books.google.com/books?id=6zPgjduXBcQC&lpg=PA359&ots=Z8EEAFQID0&dq=sucking%20of%20the%20teeth%20africa&pg=PA359#v=onepage&q=sucking%20of%20the%20teeth%20africa&f=false
-snip-
hat tip to tonyspeed on http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=717325&page=2 "Words of African origin in American English" for this link.

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Click http://nonjeneregretterien.blogspot.com/2009/07/kiss-my-teeth-or-sounds-with-meanings.html
"Kiss My Teeth or Sounds with Meanings in Africa"

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Visitor comments are welcome.