With such a succession of European empire-builders romping through the Grenadines down the centuries since the ‘discovery’ of Grenada by Columbus in 1498, you might expect a wide variety of dialects in the Carriacou language derived from Spanish, French and British influences. In fact, English is the island’s official language, conveniently enough for most visitors, although it comes in a broken, Creole version with a flavourful mix of pidgin and patois.
But if you feel an overwhelming urge to practice your Creole French, locally called ‘patwa’ you’ll find it surviving in pockets in the outlying villages, spoken mostly by older residents.
The younger generation tend to ignore it even as a second language nowadays and its demise seems fairly imminent unless a recent interest in the island’s linguistic heritage by anthropologists can pull it back from the brink. Musicologists and anthropologists home in on places like Carriacou because of their relative isolation and unique traditions, in Carriacou’s case the interplay between African, American and Caribbean cultures.
In an attempt to preserve some of the rich linguistic heritage of Carriacou, Alan Lomax made a series of field recordings across the island in 1962, and these have proved invaluable to researchers in building up a picture of how the various dialects have developed and relate to one another.
There are some common expressions in Patwa that demonstrate the colourful flavour of this tongue with its unique mix of French and Caribbean elements. ‘Eti ou ka-ale?’ means ‘Where are you going?’ and ‘Ki-plas ou fet?’ is ‘Where were you born?’ It has much in common with the Creole French spoken in Haiti.
In terms of the Creole English spoken by the majority of the island’s population, there is a wealth of material to draw on that place the language in its cultural and social context.
If you visit Carriacou, some of the words you’ll commonly hear spoken and may even find useful will include ‘baccanal’ (trouble), ‘congosa’ (gossip) and ‘wex’ (angry). If you’re feeling a bit more confident with the lingo or are just drunk you might want to make use of ‘tabanca’ (adultery, or literally ‘your woman goes elsewhere’), or ‘wine’ (sexy dance).
For aficionados of black magic there’s ‘JuJu’ (voodoo) and ‘Baccu’ (ghost or spirit), but it’s wise to go easy on these or you may land yourself in some serious baccanal with the local priest, even if it was meant as a joke. The main religion on the island is Catholicism, and even though the Spanish Inquisition fortunately never made it here there’s a Catholic church in most villages on the island and it’s only polite not to mess with religious sentiments.
Carriacou also has a nice selection of popular sayings, many of them familiar, such as ‘Early bird catch the worm’ and ‘No pain, no gain’. Others are more idiosyncratic, offering sage advice such as ‘What sweeten goat’s mouth sours in its backside’.
‘Better old than cold’ could only come from a people thoroughly spoilt in terms of the weather, and whose sun-drenched beaches arouse the green-eyed Baccu in every visitor fortunate enough to experience them.
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