One other feature I caught is that they don't bother with pronouns like "her", "him" etc. I was listening to a phone conversation (I knew the story, so I nearly understood) and where it should have been "I told her" it went "I told she". It's also noticeable in a folksong where a verse goes "God bless de Queen fuh set we free". If this verse is representative at all, it would seem that progressive tenses are also left aside.

The following are Barbadian proverbs from the book De Mortar Pestle, compiled by G. Addinton Forde. They'll provide more samples of the Bajan dialect, as well as local wisdom!

Duh is more in de mortar dan de pestle.
There is more to the issue than appears on the surface.

De tongue dat buy you does sell you.
The same person that flatters you, may betray you later.

Yuh can' be poor and show poor.
Poverty is no excuse for shabbiness.

The sea en' got nuh back door.
The sea is not a safe place.

Water does run, but blood does clod.
Relatives should see after each other's welfare.

Wha mout seh, han' can' do.
It's not always easy to back one's boast with actions.

Studiation beat eddication.
Common sense is better than formal education.

Girl, yuh like liquor bile over.
Said to a girl so beautiful she looks like sugar-cane liquor which has boiled over the rim of the container.

He look like 'e drink wha' 'e shoul 'noint wid.
He looks malnourished, or unhealthy, as if he has eaten something wrong.

That's for the anthropological part. Otherwise, what can I tell you? They're incredibly laid back. They take it easy, are super friendly and helpful - not necessarily smiling, but always nice. Strangers greet when they pass each other on the street, and the enquiry "Hello, how are you?" is not just a polite convention. You can say this to the guy opening the beach umbrella for you and he'll be like: "Yeh I'm a'ight, mahn! How's you?"

I noticed something else that's very interesting: they always address you directly, without warning. We, like everybody else I have ever met anywhere on this planet, would first call the person ("Sir?", "Uh, miss?" "Excuse me", etc), make sure they are listening, and then speak. The Bajans don't. They just speak, even if you're not looking at them, and I lost count of the number of times Kim or myself only realized we were being addressed when the speaker, after repeating 3 times, went "Hey!" Being so good-humored (and used to silly tourists), I don't think they take it personally.

Article by Joumana Medlej .