The Trinidadian Language

Dear Acting Students,




One of the major differences between the pronunciation and vocabulary of Trinidadian language and English language is the influence of African, East Indian, English, French and Spanish tongues you can actually hear in the common speech. Specifically speaking, Trinidadian is not a dialect. It's base is English, with words, phrases and syntax borrowed unchanged from African, East Indian, Amerindian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and other languages. So when imitating this language you must be apart of the Trini national character involves love of the uses of language; puns and double entendres fill both local music lyrics and conversation. What can confuse a visitor is that a Trini term is often the base of the pun (A "town man" is a city dweller, but "town" is pretty close to the Trini pronunciation of the word tongue, making it a double entendre for a man good at oral relations). Until you know the language you won't get most of the nuances in the conversations around you.
Trinis, like most Caribbean people, speak at a faster rate than most Americans can cope with. You are likely to understand about half of what two Trinis say to each other, although they will usually slow down when speaking to foreign retards. Studying the Trini dictionary and listening to tapes of Trini music and poetry before your trip will raise your level of understanding of what is going on around you higher than 50%, which should increase your enjoyment of the vacation. (You'll get tired of saying "Huh? Whadusay?")

Exercise:

For the first part of this exercise visit IDEA and listen to the audio clips of numerous Trinidadians talking. While listening you should first pay close attention to the dialect and then you should try to mimic what is being said. At this point you should be somewhat familiar with Trinidadian vernacular. However, sometimes it helps not only to hear the words, but, to also see how they are written. In order to have further practice speaking with a Trinidadian accent you should visit Trini Talk and try reading the poem out loud using the techniques given prior to this exercise. You may also consider listening to the poem while reading it so you can hear how a true Trinidadian would pronounce such words. You can download the poem here.

To gain a deeper understanding of the pronunciation of some common slang words on the island, here is a Trini Dictionary.

Also: Listen to some of Trinidad's musical vibes by checking out these songs:
"Out On De Road" by Zan and "Jumbie" by Machel Montano


By: Ashley Epps, Andre Dyson and Leah West