Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Trini Tuesday-Trini Talk

Today for Trini Tuesday, I will share some of my favorite idioms.

Basket doh hold water. That argument is set up on questionable logic.
How yuh can tell me yuh ain’t eat the last roti when I see grease on yuh hands? Dat basket doh hold water!

Crapaud smoke yuh pipe. A crapaud is the local cane toad which is poisonous. You are in serious trouble now.
Oh gosh gyal! Yuh forget to pay de light bill. Crapaud smoke yuh pipe!

Do-so eh like-so. You can dish it out but you can’t take it.
Yuh being harsh to yuh friend, chile, and yuh want him to be nice to yuh? Do-so eh like-so!

Every bread have a cheese. No matter how unattractive or awkward there is a good mate for everyone.
Winston ain’t much to look at an’ he so shy but every bread have a cheese.

What doh kill does fatten. The equivalent of our 5 second rule, can also be said of food that is on the verge of going bad.
How old dat curry is? Me ain’t know, but what doh kill does fatten.

Monkey doh see he own tail. People are blind to their own faults.
He go blamin’ all de rest fuh he problems, but dat monkey doh see he own tail.

One hand cyar clap It takes two to tango.
You cannot blame him alone fuh de quarrel. One hand cyar clap!

Hurry-hurry make bad curry. Haste makes waste.
Slow down an’ do it right. Hurry-hurry make bad curry.

16 comments:

Breazy said...

Cool ! I like those especially the crapaud smoke yuh pipe !

CozyMama said...

those are great!!!!! I just got done with my Tuesday post, I feel like a begger.

Robin said...

These are really really cool!

Sheri said...

Love these! My favorite is Every bread have a cheese

thanks for sharing these - I'll be talking like a Trinian in no time at all

S said...

LOL Cool local lingo, Lime!
I've been very interested in that sort of thing in India, too, but with dozens of languages, it's pretty difficult to latch onto anything, then get the locals to understand you with your American accent!

lime said...

breaz, that is a fun one. you should see those toads too, they are ginormous!

jodes, youare not a begger. it is a most worthy cause

robin, thanks!

sheri, i think that is my favorite one too!

bare, yeah it's a little easier when you already speak the language

Anonymous said...

very cool,
now we need to get you audioblogging so we can HEAR them!

Stephanie said...

These are awesome!! I totally agree with Logo - I so want to hear you saying these phrases!! LOL at "Every bread have a cheese" & hope Winston finds his!!

lime said...

logo and snav, what i want to do is figure out how to do castpost so i can play some steelpan for everyone, not me personally but ya know....

Fred said...

Haha - these are great!

Bsoholic said...

Ha! Totally interesting. I like Crapaud smoke yuh pipe the best!

Anonymous said...

lime this is a great post.
I really enjoyed these descriptions.

thanks for sharing..still smilin over these.

lime said...

fred, glad ya liked em

bs, for you it woudl be crapuad smoke ya ciggy, hehehe

tc, thanks! so glad you got a kick out of em

ShyRocket said...

It's official... you've been tagged!

Anonymous said...

Hiya!

Trini in London here. Here are a few more Trini sayings:

“Monkey know what tree to climb” – Ever notice how bullys, criminals, that horrible supervisor (just the baddies in general) will pick on certain people, but steer clear of others? Well, this refers to that phenomenon. (yeah cause they know who to mess with, and who’ll slap them down, hard!)

“Big ‘Gouti, small ‘Gouti, same ting!” – it’s kind of like saying whether it’s a Doberman or a Chiwawa, they’re all dogs, same result…they can bite you. (‘Gouti, short for Agouti which is a pig-like rodent that lives in the forest)

“Who doh hear, does feel” – refers to those stubborn people (or children) who you warn not to do something, but they go ahead and do it anyway. Yep, they pay the price for it.

“Gopaul luck ain’t Seepaul luck” – just because something worked or was lucky for one guy doesn’t mean the same thing will work for you.

“Good ting no cheap and cheap ting no good” –If it’s cheap, it probably isn’t any good, and if it’s good quality, you know it ain’t coming cheap. So spend your money and get the good stuff. (A throw back to the way the earliest Chinese immigrants spoke when they came to Trinidad.)

“Toute man bagai” – French creole (or patois) phrase with a similar meaning to “every man jack”. (Patois is still spoken among the older folks, especially country folk in Trinidad)

Stephanie said...

Hahahahaha I love them!!! :) Trini tingg!!