Forget Rosetta Stone: Here’s your first lesson in speaking Gullah

With this weekend’s Original Gullah Festival in Beaufort, want to learn some Gullah?

What is Gullah?

It’s a culture and a people — and a language.

It’s unique to the South Atlantic seaboard, particularly the sea islands where freedmen lived in isolation for a century after the Civil War. Heavy influences of Africa remained intact, but are now threatened by assimilation, loss of land, and the vast influx of newcomers.

Not long ago, the Gullah language was looked down upon, even by the Gullah people, as bad English.

In fact, it is said that’s why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who grew up near Savannah, rarely speaks in court.

Now it is accepted as a legitimate language with African roots.

Try this:

Tun ’round ya le’ mi see who yo da.

That’s Gullah.

Here it is in English:

Turn around so I can see who you are.

That example comes from Emory S. Campbell of Hilton Head Island, longtime director of the Penn Center on St. Helena Island and the founding chairman of the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.

Try these other Gullah words from Campbell’s book, “Gullah Cultural Legacies”:

Oona. You. You all. We glad fa see oona. We are glad to see you. How oona da do? How are you doing?

Ooman. Woman.

Da (pronounced day). Here or there. He da Spanish Wells. He is at Spanish Wells. He da da. He is there.

Da (pronounced dah). The. Gullah to da bone.

Fa. To. For.

Na. Don’t. Mi na know how fa cast. I don’t know how to cast.

Buckra. A white man, master, boss man. Sometimes uncomplimentary.

E. He, she, it, his her.

Enty. Isn’t that right?

Crack a teet. Talk.

Li. Little, tiny. Da li gal. That little girl.

Mi. I. Mi self tink me bi see you fo now. I think I have seen you before.

Yeddy. To hear.

Now, for your final exam.

It’s the Gullah story of the fox and the crow recorded in South Carolina about 1923 by Ambrose Gonzales, and published in his collection “With Aesop Along the Black Border,” according to historian Joseph A. Opala. The Gullah version is followed by Opala’s translation.

Gullah:

Den, Fox staat fuh talk. E say to eself, a say, “Dish yuh Crow duh ooman, enty? Ef a kin suade um fuh talk, him haffuh op’n e mout, enty? En ef e op’n e mout, enty de meat fuh drop out?”

Then, Fox started to talk. He said to himself, he said, “This here Crow is a woman, not so? If I can persuade her to talk, she has to open her mouth, not so? And if she opens her mouth, isn’t it true the meat will drop out?”

Fox call to de Crow: “Mawnin tittuh, “ e say. “Uh so glad you tief da meat fum de buckruh, cause him bin fuh trow-um-way pan de dog... E mek me bex fuh see man do shishuh ting lukkuh dat.”

Fox called to the Crow: “Morning girl,” he said. “I am so glad you stole that meat from the white man, because he would have thrown it away to the dog... It makes me vexed to see a man do such a thing as that.”

Crow nebbuh crack a teet! All-time Fox duh talk, Crow mout shet tight pan de meat, en a yez cock fuh lissin.

Crow never cracked open her teeth! All the time Fox was talking, Crow’s mouth was shut tight on the meat, and her ears were cocked to listen.

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Forget Rosetta Stone: Here’s your first lesson in speaking Gullah."