Me Talk Pretty One Day

Learning a new language is a daunting task. Learning two simultaneously is downright frightening. My current speech pattern is a horrendous mixture of American English, Nicaraguan Spanish, and Creole English. It makes me feel linguistically incompetent, but poco a poco it goin get betta, right?

For your enjoyment and enlightenment, I present you with a sample of what I’ve picked up over the last three and a half months. To be clear, what I’m talking about here is Creole English, not the true Creole that some (especially those from the older generations) speak. Many of the words are a direct translation from Spanish, as is the grammatical structure. The true coastal Creole is much more of a departure from my mother tongue, and therefore much harder (and sometimes impossible) for me to understand.

Belong – Used to discuss or identify place of birth (“I belong Detroit”)

Big Belly Woman – Pregnant Woman

Boonka/Boonky – Butt

Clide – Tired/sick of

Cut off – Turn off

Eibo – Almond

Moi – Term of endearment for small children

Pear – Avocado

Pinda – Peanut

Pine – Pineapple

Poonka – Fart

Punch – Strike out (baseball)

Reach – Arrive

Spring Chicken – Frog

Stay – Used to discuss where one is living currently (“I stay Pearl Lagoon”)

Strike – Inject

I continue to struggle with the proper use of pronouns, verb conjugations, question construction, and overall pronunciation, but I’m having fun (which is important too, right?) learning. And when all else fails, I can fall back on my intermediate (though quickly deteriorating) level Spanish. Or speak American English veeerrryyy sloooowly.