Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in St. Andrew, St. Catherine and Farin
Laan fi daans a yaad bifuo yu go abraad.
Learn to dance at home before you go abroad.
Master things at home before you perform in the wider world.
positive imperative with time clause
The command comes first and the before clause second, the usual order for proverbs built this way, and yaad rhymes with abroad to close both ends.
This one is taught in St. Andrew, St. Catherine and Farin.
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 →