When we had twin grandsons, I discovered something called “twin speak”. Twins often communicate with each other in words and sounds that they can understand, but others can’t. Jamaicans also speak that way – it’s their dialect and when visiting their interesting island, I learned a little about how to speak in the Jamaican dialect.
For starters, almost every conversation and sentence begin with, “Yeah Mon.”
If Abraham Lincoln was from Jamaica, his speech would have been, “Yeah Mon, four score and seven years ago.”
Patrick Henry? “Yeah Mon, give me liberty or give me death.”
The Sermon on the Mount would have been, “Yeah Mon, blessed are the poor in spirit.”
In the Jamaican dialect, the object is to get right to the point, to say in two or three words what others might state in a sentence or paragraph.
For example, if you asked about the quality of a certain restaurant, a foreigner might say, “This restaurant has a wonderful reputation for great food.”
In Jamaica they would say, “Bad enuf.”
“It appears the incoming flight from Miami is right on schedule.”
Jamaica translation? “Pon time.”
Or, “That is an incredibly beautiful woman.”
“Good one,” Jamaicans would say
Only the lawyers or politicians would use 4 or 5 words. Most Jamaicans get it done with 2 words.
The Jamaicans learn English in school, but when they are among themselves, like twins, they speak to each other in a most interesting dialect. Understand?
“Yeah Mon.”