Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in Manchester
Krai-krai pikni neva hab im rait.
The always-crying child never gets his due.
Constant complaining loses you the case you might have won.
single-clause indicative, reduplication
A cry-cry pickney is not a child who cried twice — doubling the word turns it into a habit, so one repeated word does the work of a whole phrase.
This one is taught in Manchester.
Cassidy gives this proverb — 'Cry-cry pickney neber hab him right' — where he explains cry-cry as an iterated form suggesting continuation to the point of habit.
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 →