I wonder if ya’all taking the time tuh listen tuh the new language the children talking nowadays. Even the children who come from well adjusted homes seem tuh be adopting it and coming home wid it.
I could remember when my first two nephews was in duh early teens and used tuh live here wid me. Now remember, both o’ dem used tuh go tuh different secondary schools, hear? But yet still you would hear dem coming home trying tuh talk this foolish way, especially the older one, who got into the sway o’ things at the school he was going tuh quick so.
But every time I hear him calling a horse a harse or something born, barn, I used tuh be all ovah he fuh it. He soon got the message and was done wid it ’cause he didn’t like me, as he said, barking in he ear holes all the time.
But nowadays it is far worse and the children like duh believe dat if duh doan talk the same language as some o’ the children at school who does speak so, dem could be the odd man or woman out, duh ain’t gine fit in tuh in crowd, so duh talk so because duh need tuh keep duh friends.
The truth is, the smaller ones ain’t as bad as the older teenagers. Dat is the truth, but because dem going tuh school wid the other children who is family tuh these weird-talking teenagers or even who live in the same community, it does filter down tuh dem in the primary schools.
So, you parents out there would understand dat while ya’all might be practising one type o’ language and lifestyle at home, the children talking a totally different language at school, hear? Get wid the programme.
I was talking tuh a couple o’ friends o’ mine and was asking dem how they feel ’bout the way the young school people speaking nowadays. One tell me dat duh too brawling and like duh want tuh deafen ya when duh talk.
Well, the other one is a teacher – well, she retired now – but she was telling me dat when they come intuh her class room and holler out, ‘Marning’, she used tuh stop the class and ask dem what the girl should’ve said.
Me now, I do a li’l work wid one o’ my sisters, and evah single day I does have tuh correct the schoolchildren, the girls especially, who does walk in tuh the shop and holler out, ‘Marning’ or ‘Guh marning’, in this high-pitch voice. I mean, nice-looking li’l girls, ya know?
The thing about it is dat duh doan even seem tuh be bothered when you say it the right way. I would always reply wid a smile, “Good morning” and all they does do is look at you like you is some kind o’ freak, collect what duh come for and ease way just so.
If you think talking tuh dem does make any difference, you real wrong ’cause the next day and the next duh does come back wid the same foolishness.
I would say dat all cultures got a dialect, some more intense than others, some ya could understand a lil bit of it, and some, doan even try but some kinda broken wha’evah duh does speak, be it English, Chinese, Guyanese, American, Jamaican, Spanish, whatevah.
We in Barbados, like evahbody else got one too, but what these young schoolchildren talking certainly ain’t dat or even close; it ain’t sound sweet and it ain’t got nuh kinda rhythm tuh it.
You could imagine somebody asking for a lollipop: ‘I wah a lah-e-pa’. A horse is a ‘harse’. Somebody baby born is ‘barn’. Fifty cents is now ‘fee-cent’. A ham cutter is now a ‘ha-cutta’.
Duh doan say, ‘I would like’, ‘I want’ or ‘Can I have a . . . ?’ It is now, ‘I waah . . . .’ Look, nuh kinda good morning, afternoon or anything so.
It is, ‘Wha’ wunna got in dey?’ Or ‘I waaaah chicken’, not a piece. Wunna got fish cakes? Or duh does just come intuh the shop and bark off, ‘I wahaa a dollar drink’ and, look, loud, loud, loud like dem or you deaf.
So ya understand, it ain’t dialect nuh more; it is a whole new language dem starting up, hear?
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
