Language is a Living Thing
A while ago, I posted my favourite Serbian Phrases as well as my favourite Guyanese/West Indian Phrases and lots of you shared your favourites from other cultures. Oswyn (who is Trinidadian) from hey, I'm blogging here sent me a bunch of great Trini sayings...enjoy them like I did.
~"Cockroach doh have no business in fowl party"
(Stay out of matters that don’t concern you)
~"Every stale bread have he stale cheese"
(there’s someone for everybody)
~"He/she doh eat nice"
(to say a person is arrogant or formidable)
~"Basket doh hold water"
(all threats are idle)
~"You can't play sailor and 'fraid powder"
(In Trinidadian Carnival, people who dress up in sailor costumes carry around bottles of talcum powder and squeeze the contents into the air. The powder irritates some of course so this saying was appropriated for any circumstance in which you must face the consequences of your actions.
It's the Trini version of "If you don't like the heat, stay out of the kitchen"
~"Playing dead to catch Corbeau alive"
A Corbeau is a vulture. Some animals are known to play dead in order to catch one of these that comes too feed upon them. This therefore means to act stealthily to achieve something)
~"Moon does run until daylight catch up with him"
(People who do wrong will eventually meet justice)
~"Monkey know what tree to climb"
(People who are up to no good know who to interfere with)
~"All skin teeth eh laugh"
(In Trinidad, to “skin your teeth” means to laugh. So this means do not be deceived by friendly appearances. “eh” means not or isn’t)
Thanks Oswyn for all of them. I particularly like:
"Moon does run until daylight catch up with him"
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