Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in Kingston, Portland, Trelawny, Westmoreland and Clarendon
Wan-wan koko ful baskit.
One coco at a time fills the basket.
Success comes little by little; be patient and keep adding.
single-clause indicative, reduplication
Four words, and the first one is doubled: one-one means one at a time, so the repetition carries the sense of slow adding rather than any verb does.
This one is taught in Kingston, Portland, Trelawny, Westmoreland and Clarendon.
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 →