The Editor, Sir:

Karis Chin-Quee's thesis in her Letter of the Day about patois in last Sunday's Gleaner is right - that many of our Jamaica words are of African origin. Last year, I wrote a paper partly on that fact. Here is an abstract of the paper on the word 'nyam'.

The fact of the matter is, Jamaican Creole is based on many lexical items much of them imported from Europe especially England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Alongside the British word forms, interwoven into the Jamaica Creole tapestry are African words or thought-processes which come, for example, from the Twi language of Ghana and from the Ashanti culture and customs of Nigeria.

Jamaican creole

In addition to these lexical items, there are features of African intonation, phonology, morphology, syntax and so forth. Thus in Jamaican Creole one hears a term like onnu. This term is a collective noun which functions as an adjectival/adverbial phrase meaning 'all of you' or 'you all'. This word, the writer is reliably informed, is a Ghanaian word which is still used today in the Twi language of Ghana.

Another word that is used in Jamaican Creole is nyam. It means 'eat'. So one might say 'nyam (eat) your food'. The word 'yam' that edible root crop derives from that word, and the writer understands that the term is related to one of the ancient gods of Ghana.

Now to use the word nyam in respectable society would be like committing the biggest linguistic crime imaginable. It is considered such a bad and ugly word (not morally bad, but linguistically repulsive) that one rarely hears it used anymore. It has connotations no doubt with wild animals ravenously gorging their food.

Slaves were classed as animals

Perhaps, it is quite understandable for people to have an antipathy towards this word, for when it was used by, say, the slave masters to get the slaves to eat the 'bickle' (victual), slaves were classed as animals, and their digestive organs were referred to as maw, craw, gut, gullet and so forth, then the association between nyam and animals became linked in a disparaging way. With the word nyam therefore being associated with animals, one can see why Jamaicans have an aversion to this term. But keep in mind that in its African context, it is a normal word for eat. But it has been corrupted in the socio-linguistic environment of slavery and subsequent colonialisation. However, vestiges of its use remain in Jamaican Creole.

I am, etc.,

GEORGE GARWOOD

merleneg@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica