Lesson 37 of 48 · Manchester
Talk about jobs, wages, side earnings and saving: wuk, day-wuk, hussle, pardna, mek money.
Money talk runs on its own vocabulary, and Manchester — bauxite wages, coffee crop money, returning-resident pensions — is the right place to learn it. Core noun and verb: wuk (work, a job — from the sound rule: work-wuk): Wa wuk yuh do? (what work do you do?); Mi get a wuk a di plant (I got a job at the plant). Day-wuk is daily-paid labour: Im do likkle day-wuk a Mandeville (he does day-work in Mandeville). A hussle, in the everyday honest sense, is a side earning: Shi have a likkle hussle a sell peanut a bus stop (she has a little side business selling peanuts at the bus stop). To earn is mek money: Coffee a mek money dis year (coffee is earning this year). Money itself: dunza, funds; smalls (small change, a tip): Beg yuh a smalls, nuh? A bly is a favour or break: Gi mi a bly, boss (give me a chance). Hard times: tings salt (things are rough); mi bruk (I'm broke); Di wuk lef mi (I lost my job — note the direction: the JOB left ME). And the great Jamaican savings institution: pardna (a rotating savings circle — everybody trow, meaning pays in, each week; the banker holds it; each member in turn gets the draw, the whole pot): Mi trow pardna evri Friday; dis week mi get mi draw, so mi kyan pay dung pon di fridge (I pay into the partner every Friday; this week I got my draw, so I can put a down payment on the fridge). Example run: Bauxite wuk did pay good, but di mine dem cut back (bauxite work paid well, but the mines cut back). Evri mickle mek a muckle — save yuh smalls (every little adds up — save your change). Common learner errors to recast: hearing hussle as shady — in this register it is honest graft; asking Omuch yuh mek? point-blank — soften it to Di wuk pay good?; and saying 'I lost my job' — recast Di wuk lef mi, or Dem let mi go.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| wuk | wok | work; a job |
| day-wuk | die-wok | daily-paid labour |
| hussle | hosl | honest side earning, side business |
| mek money | mek moni | to earn money |
| dunza | donza | money (slang) |
| smalls | smaalz | small change; a tip |
| bly | blai | a break, a chance, a favour |
| pardna | paadna | rotating savings circle |
| trow pardna | chuo paadna | pay into the pardna |
| draw | jraa | one's turn to collect the pardna pot |
| tings salt | tingz saal | times are hard |
| bruk | brok | broke, out of money |
| pay dung pon | pie dong pan | make a down payment on |
| higgling | higlin | informal street selling |
Work, wages and savings vocabulary are not treated in Chapter Four.
The description of the grammar is checked against the published work above. The lesson, the examples and the wording are mine.
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