The Law of Style. Jamaica Blog Awards feature in Jamaica Observer

This post is courtesy of an article in the Jamaica Observer under the Lifestyle section titled "Saturday Fashion - January 21". The Jamaica Blog Awards took place on January 15, 2012 and I attended along with some other friends and fellow bloggers. In this article, you will see my girls Karen (Mz_KARizma), Jo (MszRockstar) and Tanhoi (Tanhoi_S).

I have to say congratulations to ALL the winners especially Jo Will, Ricardo Brooks and Tonian Lindo. 

Now to the Observer article. Photos were by Marlon Reid, according to the Observer.

"Fashionable threads were spotted at this past Sunday's Jamaica Blog Awards at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel and the '40ified' party hosted last Saturday in Parrotee, Black River. Here are your Saturday Fashion team's fave style picks.

(L-R) Nastassian Brandon, Kacian Freeman, Shelly-Ann Rerrie and Karen Lloyd  1/2

(L-R) Tashoi Sinclair, Jody-Ann Williams, Shameka Saunders and singer Aria

 2/2 

The Law of Style

Nastassian Brandon, law student at the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill campus, wore an elegantly simple gold-and-burgundy minidress, which caught our photog's lens.

Beach Beauty

Mandeville-based beauty parlour owner, Kacian Freeman partied in St Bess at the '40ified' party in beach-ready shorts and an ethnic print cover-up.

Shelly's Signature Moment

Shelly-Ann Rerrie, director of Signature Styles, earned style points for her on-trend tangerine-hued jumpsuit.

Hints of Red

University of the West Indies student Karen Lloyd used pops of red — a bow in the hair and the colour in her striped shoes — to accentuate her black strapless cocktail dress.

Simple Does It

Understated simplicity worked well for Accent Marketing Sales Associate Tashoi Sinclair, in a basic black top with shimmering gray pants, which she accessorised with a black necklace and statement earrings.

Retro Chic

Jody-Ann Williams — winner of two awards, Best Entertainment and Best Music Blogs for her Real Talk with Msz Rock Star blog — was retro chic in a tiered, white lace dress.

Sunday Casual

Dressed in the perfect Sunday casuals, cute-as-a-button medical student Shameka Saunders paired her floral print dress with an off-white belted jacket.

Hitting The Right (Fashion) Notes

Although guest singer Aria's performance at the Jamaica Blog Awards did not exactly bowl us over, her snazzy trenchcoat ensemble, which she dressed up with pearls and short shorts, certainly did!

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/Saturday-Fashion---January-21_10578295#ixzz1k77eWZaz"

Bajan to English to Jamaican Dictionary (Some of what I’ve learned so far)

I thought I'd share some of the fun things I've learned in terms of language while I've been in BIM and try to break down some language barriers while I'm at it. Bear in mine that I am not a linguist. I am merely a learning Caribbean girl.

1) Sain- Something- Sumn/ Sup’n

Sentence examples:      (Bajan) Do sain fa me

                                     (English) Do something for me

                                     (Jamaican) Do sumn fi mi

2) Malicious- Curious/Inquisitive- Faas

Sentence examples:      (Bajan) Wendy Williams does be too malicious when it comes to celebs

                                     (English) Wendy Williams is too inquisitive when it comes to celebs

                                     (Jamaican) Wendy Williams too faas when it come to di celebrity dem

3) Gine- Going- A go/ Gone a (in relation to a person going somewhere)

Sentence examples:      (Bajan) I gine campus mart

                                     (English) I am going to to the campus mart

                                     (Jamaican) Mi a go di campus mart or Mi gone a campus mart

4) Wunna- You (Plural)- Unu

Sentence examples:      (Bajan) Wunna does really make me sick

                                     (English) You (all) make me sick

                                     (Jamaican) Unu sick mi

On a related note:

Bajans also say “yuh all” while Trinis (Trinidadians) say “all yuh” (sometimes sounds like ‘all ya’).

At first, I was thrown by how some things were said by Barbadians or Trinidadians but when I put them next to things said by Jamaicans or those of another Caribbean country, it somehow makes sense in terms of how words and phrases evolved. Eg: Wunna makes sense when I look at how similar it sounds to unu- it sort of sounds like “unu” with a ‘w’ at the front. Another example is “all yuh”. It’s just an inverted way of saying “you all”/”yuh all”.

5) Hey/Hay- Here- Ya so

Sentence examples:      (Bajan) What gine on hey?

                                     (English) What is going on here?

                                     (Jamaican) Whaa gwaan ya so?/What a gwaan ya so?

Note:  It may seem confusing to those of us not versed in Jamaican patois but “go” and “going” is conjugated (in Jamaican patois) depending on the subject being referred to as well as the preposition it follows as well as the tense. It’s just something I’ve learned to speak much better than I’ve learned to explain. Maybe when we become standardized, it’ll be easier. ;)

Jamaican Patois Bible: Some Thoughts

This morning I had the great pleasure of reading this article published in the BBC News Magazine online about the translation of the bible into Jamaican patois. I felt the need to share my thoughts on Twitter and it spiraled into a need to make a blog post.

My tweets read (abbreviations were made due to the 140-character limit on Twitter):

“Wow. The bible being translated into patois. All those linguists n they spell "wey" as we. No one sees the problem here?” Perfecting the spelling of patois is a very important issue to me. Spelling is key in the written word as I’m sure we can all agree

“Are we unaware how difficult it would be on this side of the world for a country to have creole as its first language?”

“The parents and children have a hard time reading and writing English. Do we really think they'll be that much better doin it w patois?”

“Unless the Bible is an audio version, I don't see how it's useful to anyone except the linguists who want to find purpose for their degrees”

"Also, if you are trying to make a language standardized, one would think you would keep the spelling of words constant”. The reason for my gripe here was based on the fact that happy was spelt two different ways in the article based on excerpts from the same book. eg: ‘appi vs api

“Ok, so you want to cater to the potential esteem problems of a child who only knows patois. Teach him English”. The esteem issue was brought up in the article in relation to children who enter school with only a proficiency in Jamaican patois who are then mocked by peers or whoever else. Seemingly, teaching them patois would be a step towards solving this esteem issue.

“Is it not clear that we will be limiting our children? Are they only to be able to function in Jamaica? I need to speak to someone abt this”

“Who worries about the esteem issues of the child whose parents are strict about them speaking only English?”

“The White English man? WHUCK?! So the black English man speaks patois? That's what you're telling me? Look here nuh!”. This was in reference to a sentiment shared at the end of the article about the patois-speaker feeling inferior due to the fact "…the model is the white English man, his language and educational standards… and we have not been able to attain it…”

Whuck is a word that is the hybrid of two other words which I will not elaborate on.You may seek clarification here though- it’s the post from the blog from whence I borrowed the term. Note my use of both English and patois in one tweet. But maybe I didn’t exaggerate my patois enough because it seems that that is necessary for our language to be differentiated. I’d just like to point out that some words are the same in English as they are in other languages eg: cul-de-sac (same in French as it is in English though literal translation may be slightly off). But I digress…

“Changing the spelling of Mary to Mieri? Well, we're just going all out, aren't we?”. Ok, this tweet does correspond with the point I made above but it was not intentional.

At the end of the article, I was left with these thoughts: