I live in the Cayman Islands, and even within our three small islands, there’s different word usage, dialects, and speech patterns.
Caymanians have colorful words and expressions they use for everyday sayings. I wanted to bring that to my Deadly Series and have the sayings shine through the characters and stories. As my critique partner said, “Add a little flavor”. I didn’t however want the dialect or word usage to confuse or overwhelm readers who aren’t familiar with the terms. Neither did I want people to think the Caymanian language consisted of unrecognizable words and expressions no one understood or could relate to, and the “island” people don’t have a grasp on the English language.
Thankfully, the balance came through the characters. For instance, their Caymanian accents and sayings are stronger when they’re upset or around family members. Who can’t relate to their accent becoming thicker when around hometown family and friends, and using words you might not normally use in polite company or at your workplace? Everyone can, right?
The Caymanian language, especially the sayings, are a fun mixture of life lessons and crazy words I wanted to share with readers, so I decided to create photos of scenery with Caymanian sayings and asking readers to guess what it means. Here’s an example:
This expression means: Who are you for or who are your parents?
Some sayings are from memory, but others will come these wonderful books by Kevin Goring. Yes, I’m giving kudos to a fellow author and Caymanian. Something I enjoy doing through CayWriters.
Stop by my Facebook page if you’d like to figure out more crazy Caymanian sayings.
It’s interesting that in the three small islands there are different dialects and word usage. I loved that photo of Who You Fuh? Unfortunately, I still haven’t gotten around to Facebook. There’s just too much to keep track of.
I understand completely, Carol! I keep getting invites to join Pinterest, but the thought of joining one more social media platform makes me want to break out in hives. Lol!
Elke-
What did you do to post the link to my recent post? I’d love to do that as well. It’s really neat!
It’s a WP plugin called CommentLuv. Works great! Message me if you need help with it.