Guyanese Online

While I don’t profess to know the origins of it, I have been aware, going back to my short pants days growing up in West Dem, of my fascination with words, whether in the subjects being taught in high school at St. Stanislaus or, in later years, in the everyday conversations with folks here or across the region, ranging from Cayman in the northwest Caribbean to my homeland here.  The influence is there, clear as day, in many of the songs I wrote, drawing on the lexicons of these various destinations I came to know from my musical visits.

It remains for me a repository of information that fascinates and motivates me, both for the specificity of the languages but also for the ingenuity of the people who created it. One should also emphasise, however, that this variety in Caribbean native expressions is only evident because of our geographical separations after we travel the region and come face to face with the differences.      Continue reading →