As a young kid, I remember watching shows with my cousin not from the couch but hours just standing there – in front of the tv. Power Rangers, Barney, The Magic School Bus, Carmen SanDiego… whatever show was on, we stood there like mini zombie, dancing, singing and acting out everything we possibly could. Even commercials…and there were many of them! It seemed like watching tv was watching more commercials than actual show. Continue reading
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Bahamianese from an “Expert”
Here’s a sound clip from Desi Wallace Swain
Ine hear no one say hambrella, tingum dem and lieness and some of these terms in a minute!
Grammar Rules
There are some basic grammar rules to the way Bahamians speak.
- Words the begin with ‘v’ or ‘w’ are often switched so that woman becomes voman, very becomes wery, and worm becomes vorm.
- ‘oi’ sounds
more like ‘er’ in words like foil, boil and moist becoming ferl, berl and merse. - ‘Str’ seems almost impossible to say since words like strength, strawberry, and strangle are often changed to skrent, skrawberry, and skrangle.
- ‘Th’ is sometimes changed to ‘d’ so this and that become dis and dat.
If you can master these four rules, you’re only just at the beginning of speaking Bahamianese.
Here is a list of words you can practice using these rules:
- wild
- toilet
- oil
- stranded
- them
- shrimp
- welcome
- visitor
Conch Salad
Isn’t she a delightful, delectable beauty?! The average Bahamian would say yes, and I would have to agree. I love fresh conch salad [pronounced kunk or kawnk]. Strombus gigas, as it is referred to in the bio world, is a sea mollusk that lives in a shell. Continue reading
College of the Bahamas and Budget Cuts
The College of the Bahamas is the Bahamas’ leading post-secondary education institution and have recently made headlines as the Bahamian government has plans to “cut subsidies to the college by as much as 45 per cent over the next five years,” this and more according to the Tribune news website.
There are also talks of increasing college tuition but students are up in arms because the current campus conditions are not worthy of the proposed increase.
(From Tribune website) Dr. Hubert Minnis and members of COBUS in front of the Harry Moore Library. From left, front row: Amard Rolle, Marquel Wallace, Lakeisha Rolle, Jan Turnquest, and Alphonso Major. Back row: Lona Bethel, Darron Cash, Dr Minnis, Franklyn Donaldson, Ernesto G Williams, John Bostwick.
There have been talks about getting the college to university status since I was there 2006-2009 but it seems like things have gotten worse. The College of the Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) along with a band of other students reportedly marched to the Ministry of Education’s office as they prepared to meet Mr. Jerome Fitzgerald, the Minister of Education.
What the government is proposing will harm “the dreams and aspirations of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles who’ve envisioned a better Bahamas for their offspring; whose life work has been to build a nation by educating their children in an institution whose essence was the development of their country,” COBUS said.
The government needs to get their ish together! Last month when everyone was going crazy about the gambling referendum they should have been focused on this matter. Priorities of the government…tsk, tsk.
Baha Life 