10 English Words Jamaicans Butcher 🇯🇲

[00:00:00]Have you ever said a word so confidently your whole life, then found out that you have been saying it completely wrong?

[00:00:10]Well, story of my life. Growing up in Jamaica, I've always said the word ponganat, but little did I know that ponganat is not the correct English word. So, in today's video, I'll be sharing with you 10 English words that Jamaicans mispronounce or butcher. So, let's get straight into the video.

[00:00:31]>> [laughter] >> All right. Since we're already talking about ponganat, let's dive into it a little bit more. So, the word ponganat means pomegranate.

[00:00:43]And growing up in Jamaica, I've always heard everybody around me saying ponganat until I came to Canada. So, I was talking to a friend telling her about ponganat, and then she was looking at me so weird. So, I decided to go on my phone to Google it. When I put ponganat in Google, it came up as pomegranate. And I was there there thinking to myself like, "Oh, okay."

[00:01:08]And then I was thinking like, "Hmm, I wonder why the old-time people decided to call it ponganat, you know?" And I was thinking like, "Okay, maybe they saw this long old word and they're like, 'Yo, we're not going to bother to pronounce all of this. We're going to just call this ponganat.'"

[00:01:24]>> [laughter] >> Well, that's just my thought process.

[00:01:28]Until today, I still call it ponganat, even though I know that the correct word is pomegranate. It's just the Jamaican in me. Just like ponganat, cliding is one of those words that I always thought was proper English until I became an adult.

[00:01:47]Now, the word cliding means cloying. So, I would say something like, "I don't like cheesecake because it's so cliding." But, you know, up until today, I still say cliding, but it depends on who I'm talking to. If I'm speaking to a Jamaican, I say cliding. If I'm speaking to a person who doesn't know patois, then I say cloying because if not, they're not going to know what I'm talking about.

[00:02:14]Stop prolong the argument is one of my favorite phrases to say when I'm trying to not hear what you have to say anymore, or I'm just trying to avoid the conversation altogether. No, the word prolong means prolong. Funny story. One day, I was texting and I was typing this the word prolong. But, for some reason, my autocorrect wasn't taking it, right?

[00:02:41]So, I decided to Google it. When I Google it, to my surprise, the word came up as prolong. So, I was thinking to myself, all my life I was saying stop prolong the argument when it was prolong.

[00:02:56]>> [laughter] >> And if you're Jamaican, I know you can relate because this is one word that we mispronounce all the time.

[00:03:06]And before we continue, please remember to like the video. Like the video, even if you're watching on a TV, click like on the video, all right? We're going to big up on ourselves. When you hear the word gyalic, what comes to mind?

[00:03:22]Well, the word gyalic means garlic.

[00:03:28]Fun fact, in Jamaica, when we're speaking patois, there's something called palatalization, which is basically when you have a G followed by an A sound, we usually add a Y glide.

[00:03:43]So, instead of saying garlic, we would say gyalic.

[00:03:49]And other examples would be, instead of saying garden we say garden and instead of saying guard we say guard. The next word on the list is Valentine's.

[00:04:02]Well, this one is pretty straightforward. You can already hear that it is Valentine, right? Well, growing up in Jamaica I've always heard Valentine's Day, Valentine's, right?

[00:04:14]Valentine's.

[00:04:16]Now, even as an adult I still say Valentine's and to be honest sometimes I mix them up and I say Valentine's or Valentine, but to be honest it's whatever come to mind first that's what I say. So, sometimes I really mix them up even now.

[00:04:35]Mickey is means make haste. Basically, hurry up.

[00:04:42]Do you remember when you were younger and you're getting ready for school in the morning and your mom would say something like Mickey is before you because if the free drive left you today or if the school bus left you today, then you depend on your own and you still have to find your way to go to school even if you got to walk, you got to find a way.

[00:05:05]>> [laughter] >> If you can relate, let me know in the comment section. Mickey is on leave your comment in our comment section. The next word on the list is muggle. The word muggle means model.

[00:05:18]Right? So, like somebody modeling shoes or clothes and until even today I still say muggle even if I'm speaking to somebody in English I still say muggle.

[00:05:30]I still catch myself saying muggle pond them.

[00:05:34]>> [laughter] >> Oh boy, not meg. No, this means not meg. No, I have to laugh because I have to laugh at this one because to be honest I feel like the old time Jamaican who came up with these names, they just heard something and they just roll with whatever they heard. Because me no understand or you get nutmeg, nutmeg, nutmeg out of nutmeg. Or you get nutmeg out of nutmeg.

[00:06:04]I guess it kind of sound like nut in nutmeg when you look at it, but it's not meg.

[00:06:10]>> [laughter] >> But you know what? I still say nutmeg.

[00:06:15]Because if I say nut meg, it don't sound like what it's supposed to sound like to me. So, me say nutmeg all the time even until now. I don't remember ever talking to somebody and say nut meg before. So, me I roll with nutmeg because me love it that way. The next word on the list is bad word. And it means bad word.

[00:06:37]Me never cuss no bad word off of you.

[00:06:39]Stop tell lie pon me.

[00:06:42]That's basically how we'd use it in a sentence. And funny story, I saw a video on TikTok that got me cracking up. And I'm going to just share it with you guys. Me no even going to bother tell you know about it. I'll just share the video and so you guys can get a laugh, too.

[00:06:58]>> No, dad. You're driving.

[00:06:59]>> Man, man.

[00:07:00]>> You're driving.

[00:07:01]>> Man, calm down with the bad word.

[00:07:03]>> Calm down what?

[00:07:05]Don't >> Last but not least, we have KFC.

[00:07:11]No, this means K F C.

[00:07:15]Growing up in Jamaica, I grew up in the countryside, right? So, in my parish at the time, there was no KFC location. So, whenever somebody's going to Kingston, we as little kids always say, "Bring back KFC for me."

[00:07:31]>> [laughter] >> So funny.

[00:07:33]>> [gasps] >> But, you know, like everybody around us used to say KFC, right? So, we just tag along and say whatever we heard. And I'm pretty sure a lot of Jamaicans still say KFC right now, same way. You see it.

[00:07:46]Now, right now I say KFC, but growing up, it was always KFC.

[00:07:52]>> [laughter] >> And you already know, we Jamaicans feel like the KFC that's in Jamaica is the best in the world, as in it tastes the best of the all the other KFC them where they all bought in the world. So, if you know anything about that or you feel like it is like that, comment down below. Let me know. And there you have it. 10 English words that Jamaicans mispronounce. Now, I know that there are tons of words that we mispronounce or we butcher every time. So, if you know about any, leave it in the comment section. Let's keep the conversation going. And if you'd like to support the work that we're doing on Nayo cast world, I have a channel membership which I will leave the link down in the comment section. So, if you'd like to contribute, go ahead and click that link. Now, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video. Yeah. And if you haven't subscribed, please remember to hit the subscription button, turn on your post notification bell, so that whenever I post a new video, you will be the first one to get notified. And I'll catch you in my next video. Bye.

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