Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in Kingston and St. James
Houdi an tangki no brok no skwier.
Howdy and thank you break no squares.
Greetings and thanks cost you nothing — always give them freely.
single-clause indicative, deontic
No command verb anywhere, yet it tells you what to do; two spoken words, howdy and tanky, stand in as the subject and the negative carries the force.
This one is taught in Kingston and St. James.
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 →