Initial Questions for 2019

My friend Paul Chen posed some questions to me at the beginning of 2018 and I’d like to do the same next year.

Throughout November and December I’m going to post some rough (As in ‘not well-shaped’, not as in ‘tough’) questions for 2019 here in Medium. I won’t be looking for feedback yet, it’ll just be a place to start collecting my thoughts.

These questions may not seem connected and they may end up being disparate, but we’ll see..

On January 1st I’ll post two pieces: what I learned in 2018 and my questions for 2019.

#1: What’s the connection between ‘fi’ and ‘finna’?

I’m a Black American, born in Virginia. My wife is a Jamaican American, born in Jamaica and I’ve been exposed to patios.

You might’ve heard the term ‘finna’ in Black English, otherwise known as African American Vernacular.

“I finna cook”

as in “I’m going to cook”.

In Jamaican patios, ‘fi’ is used. I’ll take the example from the link:

Patois: Mi realli waah dem fi know seh mi deh here
English: I want them to know that I am here

Although they aren’t used in exactly the same way, there’s definitely a relation.

I’m curious in exploring this relationship further. Perhaps along the way I’ll have an opportunity to dig deeper into my and my wife’s family’s genealogy and culture.

#history #genealogy #language #culture #society #place