Lesson 8 of 48 · St. Thomas
Deny, refuse and forbid with no/nuh, naa, neva, cyaan — and embrace the double negative.
Patois negation is a small, mighty system — fitting for Bogle's parish. THE CORE: no or nuh before the verb. Mi nuh know (I don't know). Im no say notn (he didn't say anything). No do-support ever: never 'don't know', just nuh know. WITH THE PROGRESSIVE: no + a fuses into naa. Im naa come (he isn't coming). Mi naa du notn (I'm not doing anything). Naa also covers refusal about the future: Mi naa go deh (I'm not going there). PAST: neva negates a past action — Mi neva see im (I didn't see him). Careful: neva usually means 'didn't', not English 'never in my life'. ABILITY: cyaan (can't) versus kyan (can) — the difference lives in the vowel, so drill the pair aloud: Mi kyan swim. Mi cyaan swim. COMMANDS: No badda mi! (don't bother me), Nuh do dat! (don't do that). AND THE CROWN JEWEL — double and triple negatives are correct, standard, REQUIRED for real flavour: Nobody nuh deh ya (nobody is here). No money no deh (there's no money). Im no waan gi nobody none (he doesn't want to give anybody any). Example sentences: 1) Mi nuh know weh im deh. — I don't know where he is. 2) Im naa come tideh. — He isn't coming today. 3) Mi neva tell im no lie. — I didn't tell him any lie. 4) Wi cyaan go a beach — rain a faal. — We can't go to the beach — it's raining. 5) No bus no deh pon di road. — There are no buses on the road. 6) Im no waan gi nobody none. — He won't give anybody any. 7) No badda wid di su-su. — Don't bother with the gossip. 8) Dem don' cook pon Sunday maanin. — They don't (habitually) cook on Sunday morning. Errors to recast: English single negatives (Mi see nobody → Mi nuh see nobody); do-support (Mi don't know → Mi nuh know); using no where naa belongs (Mi no come tumaro → Mi naa come tumaro); and a thin English 'can't' vowel (model the broad cyaan). Praise every good double negative loudly — it is the sound of fluency, not error.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| no / nuh | no | not, don't (before verb) |
| naa | naa | not (with -ing); refusing to |
| neva | neva | didn't (past negative) |
| cyaan | kyaahn | can't |
| kyan | kyan | can |
| notn | notn | nothing |
| nobody | nobadi | nobody |
| none | non | none, any |
| no badda | no bada | don't bother |
| don' | duon | don't (habitual) |
| tap / 'top | tap / top | stop |
| lef mi | lef mi | leave me alone |
He records 'not' as normally /no/ before the verb and gives the negative future as 'Me no a go', frequently reduced to /naa/ — the app's naa. He also prints negative-concord speech ('yuh no got no right', p. 65) without treating it as error. Note he does NOT discuss neva as a past negator anywhere in the chapter.
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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