Dictionary of Guyanese words published

There are many words that are synonymous with the Guyanese culture and when used in different parts of the world, indicate that users have close connections to Guyana.
A dictionary containing these words and phrases has been published.
Professor Daizal Samad, who is attached to the University of Guyana Berbice Campus, and his wife, Ashwannie Harripersaud, a senior assistant mistress at a Corentyne secondary school, who has been a teacher for 20 years, have published “Dictionary of Guyanese Words and Expressions.”
The dictionary contains some 1000 entries. Each entry is accompanied by its pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet; its meaning or meanings; its use in a sentence using Guyanese Creole; and a translation of that creole sentence into formal English. According to Professor Samad, the dictionary implicitly recognises that ‘Guyana Creole’ is a living language with wide variations in its use.”

Speaking of the difficulty compiling the dictionary, he said as writers they were constantly being reminded that there is no homogeneous Guyana Creolese. “It is quite well known that “town people” (Georgetown) speak quite differently from folks in Albion, in Corentyne, Berbice. Even within Albion itself, the small village of Guava Bush has variations not used in Sand Reef, the former a stone’s throw away from the latter… Similarly, there are differences between the Creole spoken in Anna Regina and Charity, respectively, in Essequibo, as there are marked distinctions between the Creole spoken in Port Mourant to that spoken in Rose Hall Town, less than half of a mile away.”
In an interview with Guyana Times, Samad and Harripersaud explained that “Guyanese Creole is a living language. It carries the heavy cargo of our history, our culture, and the many cultures that gave birth to our culture.
“It contains living reminders of the places from which we came, the cultures from which we hail, and the multiple intersections of these once-separable variables. Guyanese Creole is a constant and living reminder of how we became one despite the odds and in spite of extant apparent differences.
“Our language is the embodiment of our past and our present and has the capacity to contain the future…our language is gold; it carries and contains our memories.”
A Dictionary of Guyanese Words and Expressions is available at Amazon online. The writers are hoping that hard copies will be available soon in local bookstores. (G4)