Greater than our Constitution and Independence combined - Dictionary of the Creole

Decreed to a Canadian : The Trinity Cross (two), a house above Brian Lara, an imported Beast, the island of Tobago (Protected), rename as the Lise Winer Park Savannah...


Cote ci Cote la foreign mudda - Lise Winer's scholarly Dictionary of the Creole language of Trinidad and Tobago

Lise Winer, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at McGill University, Montreal has published a Dictionary of the Creole spoken in Trinidad & Tobago. Based on the principles of the Oxford English Dictionary, Dr.Winer has compiled the first scholarly dictionary of the Creole of Trinidad and Tobago with over 12,200 entries on the languages derived through a linguistic history from ethic groups that made up the peoples of Trinidad and Tobago. These including Amerindians, Europeans (Spanish, French, English, Portuguese), Africans (Kikongo, Ewe, Yoruba), Chinese (Cantonese, Hakka), and Indians (Bhojpuri, Urdu), as well as the English and French Creoles of immigrants from elsewhere in the Caribbean. The words are traced to their source languages including definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, spelling variants, and an abundance of citations of usage including the earliest known usage for individual items. Citation sources include not only written, but recorded and oral language.

It is the core to our existence and greater than our Constitution and Independence combined as it records where we come from and where we are going- Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago- Edited by Lise Winer

Table of Contents

Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi

I INTRODUCTION XIII
1 Purpose of this Dictionary xiii
2 Notes on Historical Language Background xiii

II HOW TO USE THIS DICTIONARY XVII
1 The Structure of an Entry xvii
a. How to Read an Entry xvii
b. Grammatical Labelling xviiii
c. Symbols and Abbreviations xviii
d. Phonetic Symbols xviii

3 Notes on Pronunciation xxi
4 Notes on Flora and Fauna Entries xxii
5 References Cited xxiii
6 Additions and Corrections xxiv

ENTRIES A-Z 1

Appendices:
A. Flora by Scientific Names 991
B. Fauna by Scientific Names 1003

Bibliographical References 1019

Meh blood take yeh

......My interest in the English Caribbean developed when I began tutoring students through the Jamaican Association of Montreal. These children were clearly intelligent, motivated, and highly frustrated. A lack of understanding of the nature of the relationship between their English Creole language and standard English, in addition to pervasive racial prejudice, led to an overwhelming majority of Caribbean-background students being assigned to and ignored in “handicapped” classes, as teachers ascribed persistent problems to lack of innate ability rather than to a complex linguistic and social collision. I was also fascinated by the speech of the Trinidadians and Tobagonians I began to meet. It was English, but a very different English, and I responded to it with great appreciation and curiosity; as Trinis say, “my blood took it” - Transcribed