Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in Hanover
Tek kin-tiit kiba haat bon.
Use a smile to cover a burning heart.
People laugh to hide pain — the heart of tek bad tings mek laugh.
positive imperative, serial verbs
Two verbs run back to back with nothing between them, tek and kibba, and both objects are body-part compounds: skin-teeth for a grin, heart-burn for grief.
This one is taught in Hanover.
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 →