Originally posted by Donnika:
[qb] no Dr Dudd. the term "chi chi bus" came about because the buses are seen as being of the patterson govt. and patterson is seen as a chi chi man. [/qb]
Originally posted by Shandra:
[qb] ...and remember "chi-chi bud...oh"
Some ah dem ah halla some ah bawl
Some ah cling -cling
Some ah dem ah halla, some ah bawl
Some ah gawling..
Wonder if those birds have some peculiar characteristics that parallel people's...? I never even thought of that back then. [/qb]
cling-cling - chat too much
gawling - long necked person
Originally posted by Donnika:
[qb] no Dr Dudd. the term "chi chi bus" came about because the buses are seen as being of the patterson govt. and patterson is seen as a chi chi man. [/qb]
Dr,Dud is right. In the mid 50s the first 32 Leyland busses came to the Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) in Kingston. They replaced the old Bedfords. These new busses were equipted with dual- transmission (manual and automatic) with air-brakes.
When the brakes are applied and the air is suddenly released, it gives off the hissing sound of 'cheeee.' A quick tap on the brakes gives off the sound 'chi,' thus 'chi chi bus'
When the sixties came around the whole fleet was Leyland.
I think it was the cartoonist Leandro who created the nick-name of the Bus Company; 'Jolly Joseph.' When the nickname'Jolly Joseph' took over, 'Chi Chi Bus' went out of style.
Patterson may have then been applying to law school.
Originally posted by SueSumba:
[qb] seems to me the language is constantly changing.
[/qb]
The Jamaican languages are more diverse than mare words. In rural Jamaica there is no change to our speach pattern, it is a constant.
In many cases, an English sentence is just a Jamaican run on words. For example; You mnay hear 'asomisey' or 'somisay,' meaning; 'that is what I said.' 'Whodat?' is another. 'Who is that.' Whadat? You get the drif? There are thousands of jamaican words of English contraction.
Someone was explaining their problem with someone else to me, and said, "di bwoy nuh get vex, an staht gi mi attitude". Although I never heard the expression before, I ceratinly knew what was meant.
The language is certainly very rich and expressive, and getting better everyday.
Mi luv mi yahd,
Mi luv mi food,
Mi luv mi Reggae an ting
A patois mi affi use when mi a play ring ding.
Mi liv a yahd
travel abrahd
Multilingwal an ting
Patois a di language fi mi a feel mi rhythm.
Originally posted by Donnika:
[qb] no Dr Dudd. the term "chi chi bus" came about because the buses are seen as being of the patterson govt. and patterson is seen as a chi chi man. [/qb]
Dr,Dud is right. In the mid 50s the first 32 Leyland busses came to the Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) in Kingston. They replaced the old Bedfords. These new busses were equipted with dual- transmission (manual and automatic) with air-brakes.
Afer the bic name "Jolly Josephs" was actually coined be the buscompany's advertising agent. It was used in advertisements especially they use to advertiuse the nigntlky happenings in entertainment,movies clons ets,to encourage after hours use of the bus services,and Jolly Josephs was the moniker they used in those ads.
When the brakes are applied and the air is suddenly released, it gives off the hissing sound of 'cheeee.' A quick tap on the brakes gives off the sound 'chi,' thus 'chi chi bus'
When the sixties came around the whole fleet was Leyland.
I think it was the cartoonist Leandro who created the nick-name of the Bus Company; 'Jolly Joseph.' When the nickname'Jolly Joseph' took over, 'Chi Chi Bus' went out of style.
Patterson may have then been applying to law school. [/qb]
It was the bus company that actually created the name during their ad camoaign that use to run every evening.
This involved publicising the nightly enternment,movies clobs anf also tells which bus goes to thes eevents. This was to beef up the nignt passenger load. It worked,but then they didn;t have the crime.
Thank you Dr. Dudd, again you are right. Thanks for the memories.
Now is my ear fooling me? Correct me if I am wrong. I think the word 'chi' relating to the Bus company is pronounced 'che' as the first three letters in Chicken. Phonetically 'che che bus.'
The word 'chi' relating to sexual persuasion is pronounced 'chy' as the three first letters in China. Phonetically 'chy chy man.
Are they adjectives or nouns? That is a moot subtlety of the Jamaican language.
Originally posted by baba afer:
[qb] Thank you Dr. Dudd, again you are right. Thanks for the memories.
Now is my ear fooling me? Correct me if I am wrong. I think the word 'chi' relating to the Bus company is pronounced 'che' as the first three letters in Chicken. Phonetically 'che che bus.'
The word 'chi' relating to sexual persuasion is pronounced 'chy' as the three first letters in China. Phonetically 'chy chy man.
Are they adjectives or nouns? That is a moot subtlety of the Jamaican language. [/qb]
Thank you neochin, however, I am still listening to my lazy ear.
Here are a few Jamacan words and their usages to ponder:
Raggae: Long before this word became an international music genre, it was a commnon discription of an ado or fuss. For emphasis, it was doubled; 'reggae reggae.' mostly used by women. eg. 'what a reggae reggae mi hear tek place up a square last night.'
Dicance: a word of fustration usually used by women. eg. 'A wey de dicance de man gone.'
Fennay: A woman's word of annoyance mostly directed to an annoying child or children. eg. If a lik yu (uno) tiday yu (uno) fennay.
Check if you remember these also:
Bangarang:
Batadong:
Ratid:
Rigin:
Sinikin:
Warawara:
We have to give Jamaican women credit for making the language so colourful. For the sake of modesty they formed words to circumvent the illegal indecent language law. A cussing woman was a virago.
Originally posted by baba afer:
[qb] Thank you Dr. Dudd, again you are right. Thanks for the memories.
Now is my ear fooling me? Correct me if I am wrong. I think the word 'chi' relating to the Bus company is pronounced 'che' as the first three letters in Chicken. Phonetically 'che che bus.'
The word 'chi' relating to sexual persuasion is pronounced 'chy' as the three first letters in China. Phonetically 'chy chy man.
Are they adjectives or nouns? That is a moot subtlety of the Jamaican language. [/qb]
You are mistaken. Chi is pronounced the same on both occasions. The derogatory term for a gay person is pronounced "chee chee man." And the chi of the bus is pronounced the same way.
My folks are from country. I remember calling Jamaican "Jamdung" once to my grandmother. She had never before heard the term, having lived in the USA since the 1950s. It took a minute for her to understand what Jamdung meant, then she bruk a loud laff, and said, "yu right, dem really jam it dung!"
That's what I love about Patois, its ability to use irony and humour to constantly reinvent itself, and yet, still remain relevant to our culture and understanding.
Dr,Dud is right. In the mid 50s the first 32 Leyland busses came to the Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) in Kingston. They replaced the old Bedfords. These new busses were equipted with dual- transmission (manual and automatic) with air-brakes.
When the brakes are applied and the air is suddenly released, it gives off the hissing sound of 'cheeee.' A quick tap on the brakes gives off the sound 'chi,' thus 'chi chi bus'
When the sixties came around the whole fleet was Leyland.
I think it was the cartoonist Leandro who created the nick-name of the Bus Company; 'Jolly Joseph.' When the nickname'Jolly Joseph' took over, 'Chi Chi Bus' went out of style.
Patterson may have then been applying to law school.
Both you guys Dudd and Afer, are on the right side of this issue. It's amazing how little the younger crowd knows of what really went down. However, in the interest of accuracy if my memory serves me right, The busses that brought Chi-chi into vogue were those brought in from America known as "white busses" around the time in the late 1940's like say 48/49. They were called "chi-chi" busses because of the sound from the air breaking mechanism. Those buses were big, and comfortable but were very uneconomical because of heavy gas usage. They were phased out when JOS took over the company in the '50's and brought in the Leyland busses.
The leyland busses had similar air breaking sounds but nothing near the sound from the White Chi-Chi busses... Hey guys! I was around as a little piddling small bwoy! I still remember tram car days! Before that the only chi-chi me know bout was chi-chi bud and more so, when Miss Lou sing it... Mucho respect from an old timer.
-----------------
We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see : Henry David Thoreau
Thank you neochin, however, I am still listening to my lazy ear.
Here are a few Jamacan words and their usages to ponder:
Raggae: Long before this word became an international music genre, it was a commnon discription of an ado or fuss. For emphasis, it was doubled; 'reggae reggae.' mostly used by women. eg. 'what a reggae reggae mi hear tek place up a square last night.'
Dicance: a word of fustration usually used by women. eg. 'A wey de dicance de man gone.'
Fennay: A woman's word of annoyance mostly directed to an annoying child or children. eg. If a lik yu (uno) tiday yu (uno) fennay.
Check if you remember these also:
Bangarang:
Batadong:
Ratid:
Rigin:
Sinikin:
Warawara:
We have to give Jamaican women credit for making the language so colourful. For the sake of modesty they formed words to circumvent the illegal indecent language law. A cussing woman was a virago. [/qb]
Reggae Reggae--i think yu mean rugu rugu. Like my parents would tell me to turn off my roohgooh roohgooh music.
dicance is pronoucned like "dick ants" dickance. looks like an Old English word to me. I think english say it. look up dickens. it comes from the author with the same name, charles.
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