When the stranger lands in Jamaica and hears the rapid rush of words, and the soft, open vowels, he often says: "Why, I thought they talked English here, but it sounds like Spanish or Italian!" The difficulty in understanding a new language lies in the inability to distinguish the point where one word ends and the next begins. The old puzzle sentence, _Caille a haut nid, taupe a bas nid_, shows this very well. The ear catches the sound but fails to differentiate the words, and, their real identity being disguised, the listener has a sort of impression of modern Greek or Italian, writing these fragments in his brain _oni_, _bani_.
Just as hopeless is negro English to the newcomer, and the first thing to do is to set about learning it. And well it repays investigation. It is the boast of the English language that it has got rid of so much superfluous grammatical matter in the way of genders, inflections and such-like perplexities. True, it has abolished much that was evil, and enables us to speak and write shortly and to the point. But negro English goes a step further, and its form is still more concise. Compare these expressions:
Corn the horse. Give the horse some corn. Care the child. Take care of the child. Him wife turn fire. His wife became a shrew. You middle hand. The middle of your hand. My bottom foot. The bottom of my foot. Out the lamp. Put out the lamp. The boy too trick. The boy is very tricky. I did him nothing. I did not provoke him. See the 'tar up a 'ky. Look at the star up in the sky. No make him get 'way. Do not let him get away. Me go buy. I am going to buy. A door. Out of doors. Short-mout'ed. Quick at repartee. Bull a broke pen. The bull has broken out of the pen. Bell a ring a yard. The bell is ringing in the yard. Same place him patch. In the place where it was patched. To warm fire. To warm oneself by the fire. You no give. If you do not give. Bring come. Bring it here. A bush. In the bush.[38]
[Footnote 38: These idioms are very similar to those of Cape Dutch, especially as spoken by the coloured people, and may help to illustrate its development. Cf. _Jy is te skellum_,--_ek gaan_ (or better, _Corp_) korp, etc. "To warm fire" reminds one of the Bantu _Ku ot a moto_, of which it is almost a literal translation. (A.W.)]