Top 5 Guyanese Phrases and Expressions

With less than two months of service left, I started thinking of things I'd miss. One of thing do sure is some of Guyana colloquisms. Here are my top five favorite:

1) "Mornin, mornin".   
           What a great way to say good morning. I think this is a Caribbean one though since I heard it in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados too.    


2) "Blessed "(in response to "how are you?") 
         I think I am going to steal this one. What better way to go about the day than to realize that we are all blessed to be on this earth which is far better than the alternative.         
      It kinda reminds me of Ivan Doigs "what a great day for the race". He replies, when asked what race, :"the human race". That's just great and just like Doig to through that into the middle of a paragraph without acknowledgement and then just keeps on going about his business of story telling.
      Something about those little positive moments that allow us to give thanks for all the good we have is special.

3) "Please for some... " (translation: "can I have some please?") 

         This is a cute one especially coming from grown adults. I don't think I'll start saying it but I will certainly miss hearing it.   

4) "Aw shucks". 

        Said without irony. Like the previous phrase it makes big jacked guys attempting to mug me a little less intimidating. Which brings me to...     

 5)"Boy you rugged."

           Said to me by my local grocery cashiers. I felt at first it was a compliment but found out eventually that it means in Guyana, not ripped, but unkempt.

  

I almost put "just now" the universa expression meaning anything from literally just now to the relative just now when considering how long the universe has been around. But then I realized while funny, I won´t miss that one at all. 

Same goes with "thiefed" which translated to robbed or stolen. When I was burgeralized and I first heard someone describe what happened, I couldn't help but feel much better about the situation. I didn't just my place broken into by a machete wielding drug addled psychopath but rather but a 4 year old toddler who just wanted my stuff more than me. 

An also ran was "where you reaching?" which does to mean you are inappropriately groping someone but rather a question to see how far are you going. Never going to use it, but a clear runner up.

That's it for phraselogy but I will be coming up with more Top 5s soon I'm sure.

Until next time,

Danny