By Luana M. Graves Sellars
You’re Welcomed by Sonja Griffin Evans
To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.”
Martinique-born Philosopher Frantz Fanon.
Gullah Geechee is a rich culture with its own language. The language has been around for hundreds of years and continues to be spoken today. As a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Gullah people have cultural language and connections to several areas of the Caribbean, including the Bahamas and Jamaica.
If you heard someone speaking Jamaican Patois, which is also a Creole based language the tonality and dialect, could be hard to decipher. The language is a combination of a variety of African words from various countries as well as English. As an English Creole based language with West African influences, the sound is similar, yet unique to the culture. The words were blended between English and African languages and in some cases shortened. Considered an ingenious form of communication, during slavery, plantation owners considered the language as ignorant and broken English, when in fact, it was deliberately made to be a way that the Gullah could communicate amongst themselves and in some cases pass coded information without being understood by their masters.
The following videos give you the opportunity to actually hear what the language sounds like. The first one has a side by side interpretation of the language so that you can hear what it sounds like as well as see the difference in how words are spelled. The second link will teach you how a Gullah conversation sounds like.
Gullah Language Video and a Gullah Greeting.
There are a lot of common English words with Gullah origins : Gumbo, Tote, Jukebox, Kumbaya, Yam, Jitters, Phony, Guber, Tater, Nana
Here’s a few Gullah words and phrases:
How are you – Wha goin on
He, she, his, hers or it – E
Good – Bussin
Look here – Look Ya
Hot – Hawt
Someone who lives in an area or been here – Beenya
Someone who is new to an area or not from around here – Comeya
Gender-neutral way of describing someone that you don’t remember – Dem Boi
Come here – Kumbayah
Be quiet – Tie yuh mout : as in tie your mouth
Where is he ? – Wah side e is : as in What side is he?
Child/Children – Chillun
Woman – Ooman
Sister – Tittuh
White man – Buckrah
Talk – Krak teet
Dawn – Day Clean
Going – Gwine
Eat – Nyam / Nam
Vegetable – Wegitubble
Those – Dem
Stupid – Chupid
Ask him – Ax’um
Fish – Fush
Bird – Bidi
Small Bird – Bidibidi
For more Gullah words, click here.
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