Original Dancehall Dictionary

START TALKING LIKE A JAMAICAN TODAY......Yea mon, yu nuh seet!.

Enjoy Jamaican reggae/dancehall music and our expressive Jamaican language? Love a great laugh too? This is the right book for you.

The late Bob Marley introduced the world to Jamaican music and despite his death he continues to be one of the most listened to musicians in the world. Marley's fame has also opened doors for dozens of other Jamaican outstanding entertainers to keep the world rocking to our vibrant music. Among the most popular are Shaggy, Sean Paul, Jimmy Cliff, Morgan Heritage, Movado, Sean Kingston and.

However, because many of our entertainers use our indigenous language, patois, many music lovers have often not fully understood the lyrics. It was this reality which led to the birth of the Original (Jamaican ) Dancehall, dictionary in 1993. However because our language is not static and the entertainers continuously coin new words and phrases which grab the attention of the young people who follow popular music, thus becoming part of our lexicon, there is a a need to update the world on a regular basis.

We the writers of the Original Dancehall Dictionary recognize this, hence this is the 6th edition.

Apart from being a popular music capital, Jamaica is also the leading tourism destination in the Caribbean so even if you are not a follower of popular music, to be able to better enjoy our exotic foods, white sands beaches, gushing waterfalls and lush mountains it is best that you are able to communicate with the local fol and not just tour operators.

Our Dictionary therefore will satisfy all your needs in a most humorous way and to make sure you get mit right, we use cartoons to make the explanations simpler. And pronunciation? No problem mon, just pronounce the words phonetically. Irie.
Now start your lesson in patois today.

Lesson 1.
If an artist at a stage show is giving a great performance, what do you shout most exuberantly" Hat it up yes" and when the performance is lousy make sure you shout "Pack Up and park".

Thirsty? You need to "beat sum juice" and if your partner eats everything in sight? That makes him " Nyami nyami". When you cannot understand what is being said if you do not indicate that you have a problem "overstanding:" you will continue to be left in the dark!

Need to feel irie?

A Bob Marley is a large marijuana/ganja cigarette/ spliff. So named as the great reggae artist's most famous poster has him holding the huge sample. And to make it easy for you to follow the logic of the language, the little cigarette/spliff is called a Ziggy after Bob's eldest son...little Bob!

Oh the joys of the Jamaican language. Right Mi Pree? Wi flex good.

So much to learn, so little time.

So kick back and enjoy learning one of the most useful, beautiful and expressive languages in the world.