Lesson 30 of 48 · Westmoreland
Talk about land, crops and country life: grung, chop bush, plant, crop, fit, spring.
Westmoreland a farming country, so this lesson is pure grung talk. First the key word: grung (from 'ground' — the sound rule -ound to -ung: ground-grung, town-tung, down-dung) means both the ground AND a cultivated plot: Mi a go a grung (I'm going to my field). Grani still a plant har likkle grung (Granny still farms her little plot). Core verbs: chop bush (clear land with a cutliss — machete); plant; weed out; dig; crop or reap (harvest); water. Key adjectives: fit (full-grown, ready to pick — NOT physically fit); spring (sprouted, gone bad — of yam); dry, green. Example sentences: Mi deh a grung fram maanin (I've been at the field all day). Wi haffi chop bush before wi kyan plant (we have to clear land before we can plant). Di yam dem fit fi dig (the yams are ready to dig). Dis corn spring aready — dash i weh (this corn has sprouted — throw it away). Rain naa faal, so di grung dry-dry (no rain is falling, so the ground is bone dry). Goat bruk out an nyam aaf di callaloo dem (a goat broke loose and ate up the callaloo). Sun hot tideh, come outta di sun (the sun is blazing today, get out of the sun). Di cane piece dem stretch fram ya-so go a sea (the cane fields stretch from here to the sea). Places on a farm: cane piece (sugar cane field), banana walk (banana grove), yam hill (mound for growing yam), bush (the countryside; also weeds). Common learner errors to recast: saying 'farm' or 'garden' — recast with grung; saying 'the yams are ready' — recast Di yam dem fit; forgetting plural dem (di goat-dem, di yam-dem); saying 'it's raining' — recast Rain a faal, and 'the sun is hot' — Sun hot, no verb 'to be' needed.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| grung | grong | ground; farm plot, field |
| bush | bush | countryside; weeds, scrub |
| cutliss | kotlis | machete |
| chop bush | chap bush | clear land |
| plant | plaant | to plant |
| weed out | wiid out | to weed |
| crop / reap | krap / riip | to harvest |
| fit | fit | full-grown, ready to pick |
| spring | spring | sprouted, spoiled (of yam, corn) |
| cane piece | kien piis | sugar-cane field |
| banana walk | banaana waak | banana grove |
| yam hill | yam hil | yam mound |
| fowl | foul | chicken |
| rain a faal | rien a faal | it's raining |
Farming and land vocabulary is not treated in Chapter Four. Its grammatical asides (plural dem, Rain a faal, Sun hot) are covered under Lessons 11, 6 and 13. Note that its 'forgetting plural dem' error line makes dem obligatory, which p. 51 does not support.
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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