Talk:Bajan

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(For others: you'll just get to see a little sample of someone 'speaking bare Bajan' as the old folks used to say.... Question: Dis is for ah next Bajan- I cyah t'ink of dis one word... Iz- de word when someone is crossed or like upset and they're pouting wid dey 'mout up in de air'.... Bajans have a word for it, but ah only able to t'ink of de Trini word... Which I think is "Turn-up yuh face", or "Screw-face" but, ah trying to think back and I think de Trini word had a predecessor too. Iz tough sometime to remember some of dese old words nowadays yea, since soo much of de new words comin' into de Barbados lingo from down Trinidad, Jamaica or Guyana. CaribDigita 04:18, 5 July 2006 (UTC)


ANNSA: I tink it is wen somebody does be 'cruel' but i ain too sure bossman. safe?

I think I remember it.... It is an old Caribbean- french-creole so I don't know exactly how it is spelled only how it is said. It is prounced (I think) something like "Mooyae mouth" or "moo-yea mouth"... Basically you could say "them people other standing up with their bunch of mooyae mouth" or something to that effect and it basically means that the people(or persons) look pissed off. CaribDigita 23:01, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for comment

A request for comment was added for this article, regarding the disputed inclusion of the extensive list of vocabulary.

  • Bajan - this article contains an exhaustingly long list of Barbados slang. The presence of the list in the article is contested for being a clear violation of Wp:not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_dictionary. Furthermore, the list keeps growing ad nauseam with a vast array of sexual slang/neologisms. Since the list removal has been reverted twice by two different users, objector kindly requests comments on this issue.

Please comment below. Thank you.--Húsönd 00:41, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

So what's the problem? Bajan is not actually a whole other language, but the usage and sentence structure are somewhat varied and continue to evolve due to the multi-cultural influences like Hindi which continue to add terms like "Tabanca", etc. In the last 3-4 years. This article tells a person for example if they were to goto Barbados exactly what are hearing and how they too could speak or understand the same dialect which may seem- like a slang of English because it isn't a whole language. I guess there's a Wikipedia bias towards only going indepth with Romance languages instead? CaribDigita 02:37, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Please do not try to establish a comparison between Bajan slang and those Latin and French expressions (many of which are used in English). As it currently is, this article is an endless list of unencyclopedic slang, an indiscriminate collection of information really. There's websites providing Bajan slang for anyone who'd like to learn it extensively, but this article is just not the place for it. A handful of good examples of Bajan would suffice.--Húsönd 04:26, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
Bajan is an English Creole, not a "slang". It isn't acceptable to resort to dismissive and derogatory terminology while discussing article content. It's unreasonable to expect people to listen to you while you insult them. Guettarda 06:19, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
Did I say that Bajan IS slang? I am perfectly aware that Bajan is a creole, but the vocabulary contained in this article is riddled with low level Bajan slang. Did you even bother to check out the entries before assuming that I'm some kind of troll trying to chop off a quaint, harmless list of words? Don't interpret my positions with such levity please.--Húsönd 16:49, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
The list of words here is clearly beyond the scope of an encyclopedia. If these term can be reasonably attested, they should be added to the wiktionaries. Building up a huge and fairly arbitrary list of colloquial expressions doesn't really help the article. It just makes it harder to verify. All that's needed are a few good examples.
And in case you're wondering, I treat non-creoles the same way; no lists of tourist phrases are appropriate in any of our language FAs, for example.
Peter Isotalo 10:22, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
That's exactly what I think about this list.--Húsönd 15:37, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Not much can be "verified" easily for the "Wikipedia community" because not much has previously recorded / documented about Bajan. Barbadians have been coming to this page once in a while and have been verifying for each other. I personally have had several things I posted modified as well. So far- this list is the most upto date article on Barbadian speech online (that I've seen). Some (so called) "travel guides" have tried to put together (small) lists on how to speak Bajan but many either say the word wrong, misspell the words, or use it in the wrong context. Bajan also remains dynamic language that changes from year to year because the language overall was partly devised as a lingustic code- for people in Barbados to be able to speak and have the plantation owners not know what was being said. Also for the record- that's incorrect, these aren't "tourist phrases", these are the actual ways to speak Bajan. CaribDigita 17:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Well, that adds even more reasons for the list to go, as per WP:V and WP:NEO.--Húsönd 18:44, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Carib, the point is not whether it's intended for native speakers or not, but that it's a completely arbitrary list of phrases and words. If you want to write a how-to guide for Bajan, then you're best off doing so in the form of a WikiBook. If you want to explain the individual words, start working on Wiktionary articles. We have sister projects for a reason. And complaining about WP:V isn't really that constructive. How else do you expect a wiki to be taken at least somewhat seriously as a reasonably reliable encyclopedia?
We're not saying that the info useless or that these words aren't used in Bajan, but we are saying that this article isn't the place for it. Articles aren't supposed to be general storage of from enthusiasts. And do keep in mind that Wikipedia isn't the sole repository of knowledge on the internet.
The list should be condensed to a few useful examples and transwikied. I recommend moving it to the talkpage while sorting this out. Its current length and format is very inappropraite for a language artice.
Peter Isotalo 16:41, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Just to finish this debate would others be ok with....

I have a suggestion. I'm personally am leaving (opting out) of this discussion, I'm more focused on using my energy to do other things.

Just to be over with, I suggest that perhaps this information be transfered to-

Would there be any objection from anyone about the move of this content to there instead? Or another alternative? CaribDigita 18:23, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

No objections at all. In fact, I don't mind if some verifiable vocabulary is kept, as long as all the vulgar colloquialisms go.--Húsönd 18:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
You're kinda forgetting that we have sister projects. See post above.
Peter Isotalo 16:42, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
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