Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in St. Ann
Kak mout kil kak.
The rooster's mouth kills the rooster.
Your own careless talk can destroy you — mind what you report and repeat.
single-clause indicative, body-part subject
The same animal opens and closes the line, and the actor in the middle is a body part turning on the owner it belongs to.
This one is taught in St. Ann.
The grammatical categories this description uses — clause type, mood, and the sound patterning noted where it carries the proverb — follow Unseth's framework for describing a proverb rather than only translating it.
The proverb is folk material. The description of how it is put together follows the framework in the work above; the translation and the commentary are mine.
Hear it, and collect the rest →