Lesson 19 of 48 · St. Ann
Open, sequence and land a story: One time..., den, afta dat, same time — an dramatize wid di cleft: A run mi run!
Now we put everything together and tell stories. Rule one — openings: Jamaican stories open with a formula that pulls the listener in: One time... (once...), Wa day ya... (just the other day...), Yuh waan hear wha happen? (you want to hear what happened?), and for Anancy stories, Once upon a time, Bredda Anancy... Rule two — sequencing: move the story along with fus (first), den (then), afta dat (after that), same time (at that very moment), at laas (at last), inna di end (in the end). Once the opening sets past time, keep the verbs bare — the story flows like a vivid present: Mi walk go a shap, buy di bread, an same time one big dog run out pon mi! Rule three — drama: use the cleft for the big moment: A run mi run! (did I ever RUN!) A fraid mi fraid mek mi neva look back (I was so scared that I never looked back). Rule four — the landing: end with story done, or land a proverb as the moral. Examples: (1) One time, mi granny sen mi go a shap. (2) Fus mi buy di bread, den mi memba di milk. (3) Same time, di rain start fall. (4) A run mi run go home! (5) Afta dat, mi neva walk dat road again. (6) Inna di end, everyting cook an curry (in the end, all was well). (7) Story done. An di moral: wha sweet nanny goat a go run im belly. Common errors to recast: slipping into English connectors ('and then', 'suddenly' — recast: den, same time); past-tense -ed creeping back mid-story (recast to bare verbs); and rushing the ending — teach the learner to pause, then land the moral. St. Ann is storyteller country — every guide at Nine Mile and Dunn's River performs this exact skill daily. Have the learner tell one true family story using the full frame.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| one time | wan taim | once (story opening) |
| fus | fos | first |
| den | den | then |
| afta dat | afta dat | after that |
| same time | siem taim | at that very moment |
| at laas | at laas | at last |
| inna di end | iina di en | in the end |
| pop 'tory | pap tuori | tell the story |
| Bredda Anancy | Breda Anansi | Brother Anancy, the spider trickster |
| story done | tuori don | the end |
| yuh waan hear? | yu waahn ier? | do you want to hear? |
| moral | maral | the lesson of the story |
He shows that once an adverbial has set the time, every verb in the narrative stays bare, and the chapter's cleft examples ('A no lie Sammy lie...') are exactly the dramatic focus device the lesson teaches for the story's big moment.
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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