Since Rihanna released her single entitled "Work," featuring Drake, a lot of think-pieces and tweets have appeared disregarding Patois. Many people have labelled it “gibberish,” and frankly, I find this incredibly insulting. It is insulting to my culture and many other cultures, as there are many types of Patois, varying from island to island.
Patois, to me, IS a real language, and should be treated as such.When typed into Google's search bar, the definition of "Patois" that comes up is:
"The dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country."
My definition of it would include the fact that Patois is an English-based creole language, and it is unique. There is Jamaican Patois, Barbadian Patois, Trinidadian Patois, and so on. Each country has their own unique set of words and phrases that set them apart from the others. People don't just come and "learn" Patois, which is what is so unique about it. Like Olive Senior once wrote, "You cannot catch my rhythm, for you have to born with that."
Each Patois has different ways to say "What's up?"
Jamaican - "Wah gwaan?"
Trinidadian - "Waz de scene?"
And different ways to say "You all:"
Barbadian - "Wunna"
Jamaica - "Unnu"
Trinidadian - "Allyuh"
Some Patois even have the same words, like:
"Bacchanal" - which means drama, or to have a good time e.g, "You like too much bacchanal"
"Fete" - to party or a party, e.g, "You going to the fete tomorrow?"
"Ducking" - hiding from somebody, e.g, "I ducking my wife today"
All that to say, it is time for Westerners to start recognizing that Patois is our way of speaking, and criticizing it, calling it "trash" or "gibberish," is just plain ignorant. I'm not expecting anyone to immediately recognize and know Patois when they first hear it, but if you know Rihanna, and you know she is from the Caribbean, why not keep that in mind? Would you go to Holland and label their language unintelligible crap, as well?
My Patois is a real language and no matter where life takes me, when I'm with my friends or my family, or roaming the streets of my islands, I will use it, and I will be proud of it, even if it's labelled as "gibberish."
