Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in St. Catherine and Farin
Laan fi daans a yaad bifuo yu go abraad.
Learn to dance at home before you go abroad.
Master things among your own people before you show off elsewhere — the motto of this whole journey.
positive imperative with time clause
Command first, then the before clause, the order proverbs of this shape nearly always take, with fi marking the verb that follows laan.
This one is taught in 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 →