"Jafaikan" English

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Learn Jafaikan in two minutes
Emily Ashton
Wednesday April 12, 2006
The Guardian

Safe, man. You lookin buff in dem low batties. Dey's sick, man. Me? I'm just jammin wid me bruds. Dis my yard, innit? Is nang, you get me? No? What ends you from then? If this language sounds familiar, the chances are you're from inner-city London, where a new multicultural dialect is emerging. But wherever you live, it's coming to you soon. The "cor blimey, guvnor"s of those born within the sound of Bow bells are fading into oblivion as a new Jamaican-inspired language takes hold. In a not too distant future, the familiar EastEnders twang of the market seller ("Cam and git your tasty apples!") will be replaced by an Ali G-style patter ("Dem apples is sick, innit?").
Language expert Sue Fox, from London University's Queen Mary College, is in the middle of a three-year study of the city's speech patterns. Together with researchers from Lancaster University, she has been chatting with teenagers at colleges across London and recorded their conversations to analyse the distinctive new dialect.

The resulting accent is not dissimilar to Jamaican patois; words are more clipped, as opposed to the cockney tendency to "eee-long-ayte" vowels. Although the study is initially focused on London, it is thought that the speech pattern is spreading northwards to reach young people in areas such as Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol.

One schoolteacher has used the term "Jafaikan" to describe the new language, but the researchers insist on more technical terminology: "multicultural London English".

"It can be quite hard for teachers to understand what pupils are saying sometimes," Fox adds. But worry not, parents and teachers, because G2 can provide you with this handy Jafaikan glossary.

Creps Trainers; thought to originate from Jamaican parlance. "Gimme dem creps, man."

Yard Home (from "back yard"). "Out tonight?" "Nah, man, I'm chillin' in my yard."

Blad/bredren/bruv Mate; "blad" is thought to relate to "blood" brother. "What you sayin', blad?"

Yute Kid, kids; from "youth". "Those yutes be runnin' round."

Safe/easy Greeting. "Oh, there he is ... safe, man!"

Ends Neighbourhood, area. "What ends you from?"

Sket Loose woman; short for Caribbean sketel, meaning "slut". "Dat gal is a proper sket."

Low batties Trousers that hang low on the waist; slang for man's buttocks. "Check out dem low batties!"

Nang Good, cool; originally from Australian slang. "Last night was so nang!"

Sick Good. "Dat new skateboard is sick, man."

Deep Rude, horrible. "That was deep."

Allow it/him Leave it/him alone, forget it. "Wanna walk to the shop?" "Nah, allow it, bruv, dat's a trek, innit?"

Nuff Really, very; from "enough". "He was nuff rude."

Buff Attractive; used to describe a man or woman. "Hey, you seen my new man? He's well buff, innit?"

Begging Talking nonsense. "You just beggin' now."

Jamming Hanging around; thought to originate from musical term. "What you up to, blad?" "Just jammin'."

Hype (n) Excitement; (adj) exciting; (v) to get excited. "That's some hype bike you have"; "He got drunk and was runnin' round on a hype."

Chat Talk back, contradict. "Don't chat to me!"

Bare Very, a lot. "I'm bare hungry"; "There were bare people" "Bear-Moneys"

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:01 (twenty years ago)

Rofflin
Lolz
Fapping
QNI
(teh) roxor/suxor

WE ARE AS COOL AS THEM RLY

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:51 (twenty years ago)

ilx0rs in talking liek noobs shockah?

― teh_kit has 18 friends (g-kit), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:56 (twenty years ago)

noobian?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:58 (twenty years ago)

dry, bruvs.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:03 (twenty years ago)

what's a nubian?

― teh_kit has 18 friends (g-kit), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:05 (twenty years ago)

what's qni?

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:11 (twenty years ago)

Extra nipple innit blud?

xpost

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

QNI = quiet night in - not actually ILX-speak.

i should've put OTM.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:17 (twenty years ago)

Why is there an acronym for that?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:19 (twenty years ago)

for which?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:21 (twenty years ago)

none of that is ILXspeak, except maybe fapping. it's all noobtalk.

― teh_kit has 18 friends (g-kit), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:23 (twenty years ago)

who cares?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:25 (twenty years ago)

if we play nice maybe the guardian will write it up.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:27 (twenty years ago)

For "quiet night in".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:27 (twenty years ago)

Same reason any other acronym exists. Obviously.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:28 (twenty years ago)

yeh, takes too long to write/say - also acronymising the mundane to make it seem more important often constitutes minor lolz

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:30 (twenty years ago)

All in all, English-speakers (and especially Americans) seem to really love acronyms, in Finnish I think people don't use them quite that often. Maybe the internet will change that, but for the most part Finns seem to be biting English net slang (like LOL, ROFL...) instead of creating their own acronyms.

(x-post)

Is "quiet night in" really such a common phrase that it needs an acronym? Why isn't there an acronym for "I need a foot massage" or "fuck me, you filthy animal!" then?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:31 (twenty years ago)

u wuld caer if u were pr0 lol

― teh_kit has 18 friends (g-kit), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:33 (twenty years ago)

You've answered your own question there.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:33 (twenty years ago)

Why isn't there an acronym for "I need a foot massage" or "fuck me, you filthy animal!" then?

Perhaps there are, among some peoples/circles. You can acronymise anything you want. Then get others to adapt it too, or have them mock your pitiful existence accordingly.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:35 (twenty years ago)

Okay, what is the group that uses "quiet night in" so often that it needs to be acronymized?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:36 (twenty years ago)

ppl who text each other saying 'are you coming out tonight?'

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:38 (twenty years ago)

Okay, what is the group that uses "quiet night in" so often that it needs to be acronymized?

Me and the 104 friends that constitute my militia.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Okay, this just proves my point - ín Finnish no one would acronymize "quiet night in", not even in text messages. It's kinda weird, since Finnish has such long words, you'd think acronyms would be more common.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:42 (twenty years ago)

When I first started posting a lot on ILX I thought all the slang terms on it - some of them FT-related, were STUPID inc. 'grebt', 'k-rub', 'FAP' and 'OTM' but these things have a habit of reeling you in.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:43 (twenty years ago)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&hs=LyN&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=+site:ilx.wh3rd.net+ilx+qni

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:44 (twenty years ago)

Dey saw me stab someone down de lane..... A licky boom boom down!!!

― JTS (JTS), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 21:03 (twenty years ago)

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

"The traditional cockney accent is being replaced by a mixture of ethnic influences," she says. "Young people are increasingly exposed to accents from West Africa, Bangladesh, India and South America, and this is leading to different vowel sounds." The resulting accent is not dissimilar to Jamaican patois; words are more clipped, as opposed to the cockney tendency to "eee-long-ayte" vowels.

Forgetting all the slang, I think this is the most interesting thing. There seems to be real generation gap now in London, and anyone aged under 20 has a completely different accent to anyone aged over 30.

― Teh HoBBler (the pirate king), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 21:19 (twenty years ago)

marley rip

― animal, Wednesday, 26 April 2006 21:22 (twenty years ago)

i talk with a 1337 accent

― teh_kit has 18 friends (g-kit), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 21:35 (twenty years ago)

Bristol is north of London?

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 22:36 (twenty years ago)

Teehee: Nang Good, cool; originally from Australian slang. "Last night was so nang!"

I might be off here (or getting too old) but round my way, nangs sure is a slang term - but its slang for those soda gas cannisters you use in soda streams/sodawater makers - sucking on a few of those for a stupid high is having some nahgs or nangnangs.

I suppose at a stretch I can see how that morphs into a more generic cool/fun usage.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 22:47 (twenty years ago)

thank you stence for the new desktop background

― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Thursday, 27 April 2006 00:29 (twenty years ago)

HUNTA-D TO THREAD! PUT DESE FASSYMEN CHICHIS IN DEY PLACE!!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 27 April 2006 01:10 (twenty years ago)

Limeys catch on to ebonics half a decade later shockah!

― someone let this mitya out! (mitya), Thursday, 27 April 2006 02:12 (twenty years ago)

it's not the same thing. read the article. TeH Hobb is correct. There is a new accent that is spoken by many many people under 20, even round here where I live. It's not the same as Jamaican nor cockney. You'd hear a cockney pronounce the number 19 as "nain'eeen" and a Jamaican say "naianteean" but Jafaikan it's "nahn'een" - it's a lot more clipped with less vowel margin.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 06:23 (twenty years ago)

Also it's not a Black/White thing. If you think of famous black Londoners who were born in the 60s (or thereabouts) they've all got 'cockney' accents. But the majority of 'working class' Londoners born after about 1980, from whatever ethnic background, have got this new hybrid accent.

― Teh HoBBler (the pirate king), Thursday, 27 April 2006 06:47 (twenty years ago)

'ebonics' is a racist word -- black americans don't speak like black britishes (or um black africans...).

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:03 (twenty years ago)

see urban dictionary reckons nang originated in 'ackney:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nang

innit.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:08 (twenty years ago)

you could almost call it the "Grime" accent, although I associate it with young third-gen Indians almost more than anyone else. I heard a south-east Asian guy speaking this way the other day and it really surprised me.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Marcello+Carlin

― +++ ^^^ +++++, Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:12 (twenty years ago)

omg

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:12 (twenty years ago)

Some of it's still pretty London long vowels. All those kids say 'like' as something along the lines of "liarhk".

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:13 (twenty years ago)

or "lak", yeh.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:15 (twenty years ago)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ned+raggett

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:23 (twenty years ago)

was there a thread called 'urban zingtionary' that day?

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:24 (twenty years ago)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=steve+m

Somehow I doubt this is the real Stevem...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:26 (twenty years ago)

lollergeddon!

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:27 (twenty years ago)

I would just like to point out that if I was lame enough to be using urbandictionary to insult other ILXors I would be sure to not use my actual name. Cheers.

Also 'nang' unlikely to have come from the Aussie slang - since when did UK yoots poach words wot they learned on Neighbours for everyday use?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:28 (twenty years ago)

The Paul Hogan Show has a lot to answer for.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:31 (twenty years ago)

As a the child of Jamaican immigrants who speaks like (so I'm told) a Shakespearean actor, I find this stuff amusing.

Most of the people I've heard with this "accent" have been asian lads or middle class white kids trying to sound "street" (The last of which is even funnier when they're attempting to buy drugs from me 'cos I'm the only black person they can see in the particular club we're in)

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:05 (twenty years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Westwood

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:10 (twenty years ago)

yeh Westwood seems to be the progenitor of this. and yeh it's mostly asians and white kids who speak lak dis, innit?

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:28 (twenty years ago)

no-one said it wasn't often white and asian kids tho (i quibble middle-class).

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:31 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, dawg!
But Westwood's wigga-ism is US hip-hop based. You can tell he's going for the American thing - but he does appear to have altered it in the past few years. The peculiarly British kind of wigga (who I suspect you'll meet if you go to any grime or breakbeat gig) has the faux Jamaican accent.

Which is actually something I find interesting in itself, because there are a number of West Indian accents, but the stereotypical one is Jamaican. I've yet to hear a faux Trini, Bajan or Guyanan (nor any of the other small islands) wigga. I suspect they don't exist

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:31 (twenty years ago)

I always thought that "nang" was a corruption (or maybe a complete steal) of a Bangladeshi word?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:39 (twenty years ago)

it's obviously a music/culture assimilation though and so it becomes a mishmash of Cockney, Jamaican, US HipHop Slang, Indian and other accents.

What can often happen though is you get effects like two accents converging, thus creating a completely different vowel sound. Also, many second and third generation kids will actively over-compensate for their parents' accent. The typical New York Jewish "Cwup oav cwoffee" accent is actually a backlash against first gen Jews who would have said "a cop of coffee" etc.

So yeh, this is a very interesting development in language and it's quite striking how many people have adopted it into the mainstream. I wonder if all these London white kids speak like this to their parents at home or not. Probably a bit.

If anything this will be the way everyone in the South of the UK will be speaking in 20 years time, much like the way Estuary accents have replaced BBC-style RP as the default broadcast accent. The slang may go but the accent will have a major impact.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:41 (twenty years ago)

xpost to stonemonkey btw.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:41 (twenty years ago)

faux Trini is harder to do, you end up sounding Welsh (see also: faux Pakistani)

xxxpost

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:42 (twenty years ago)

no-one ever spoke RP at home.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:45 (twenty years ago)

Oh that awful w-word etc.

I hear black kids around Hackney saying some of the words listed above. But obv. as soon as they know other people are using them they can no longer use them themselves.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:50 (twenty years ago)

i hear some of them around, but never 'nang'.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:51 (twenty years ago)

Oh that awful w-word etc.

Welsh?

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:51 (twenty years ago)

Most of the people I've heard with this "accent" have been asian lads or middle class white kids trying to sound "street"

Ali G was Asian wasn't he?

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:56 (twenty years ago)

jewish

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:57 (twenty years ago)

Yes yes, but you know what I mean

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:57 (twenty years ago)

no he was making fun of the idea of people like him (middle upper class Jewish) acting that way.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:58 (twenty years ago)

Right, but seriously...

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 09:58 (twenty years ago)

i think he was supposed to be jewish.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:01 (twenty years ago)

No, they always said the reason he was called "Ali" G was because he was meant to be Muslim, so presumably Pakistani or Bangaldeshi.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

i see what you mean and that's why certain race groups got offended about it. but i think Konal's right in the end.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:04 (twenty years ago)

Tho Ali G wasn't using words unfamiliar to his viewers - just actual English words pronounced in a vaguely Jamaican accent ('respeck' etc.). Very dated in that sense.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:06 (twenty years ago)

we haven't addressed how widespread jafaikan is though.

― 25 yr old slacker cokehead (Enrique), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:07 (twenty years ago)

No, they always said the reason he was called "Ali" G was because he was meant to be Muslim, so presumably Pakistani or Bangaldeshi.

I remember being amazed that people were offended about this "white" character when it seemed obvious to me he was supposed to be Asian. I think, when it got big, Baron Cohen decided it might be wiser to change the character's history - or at least make it less ambiguous.

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:09 (twenty years ago)

Konal, yeh Ali G is dated in that way but also quite clever in the way that it actually pre-dates the mainstream use of Jafaikan. There's been a form of it that's existed for quite some time but it's only recently that I've noticed even my little brother using it (ironically or not, I can never tell).

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:11 (twenty years ago)

we haven't addressed how widespread jafaikan is though.
-- 25 yr old slacker cokehead (miltonpinsk...), April 27th, 2006. (later)

The answer being that it's very common (in more ways than one!) I'm a Mancunian and I've heard kids up here use it - with the odd added Northernism thrown in, of course.

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:36 (twenty years ago)

yutes be chilin down t'pit

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:37 (twenty years ago)

Accents are getting more homogeneous all over - watch an edition of Jeremy Kyle for proof!

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:38 (twenty years ago)

The nang thing: even urbandic says, for entry 3:

Nang
(or bulberators, whippets, cream chargers)

Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas - used as anaesthetic in dentistry) filled little gas cylinders normally used in a
whipped cream syphon ('Nang machine') in cafes etc, but inhaled slowly directly into the mouth or via a filled balloon.

Theres no way thats where the UK use came from, come on.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:52 (twenty years ago)

I don't speak Jafaikan.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:54 (twenty years ago)

I hate it, it's so ugly sounding

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 10:55 (twenty years ago)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/Mega91/e7b78902.gif

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 11:11 (twenty years ago)

http://sweb.uky.edu/~adbroc2/images/damarcus.gif

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 27 April 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

LOLZ

― Kids Will Eat Them Till the Cows Come Home (Dada), Thursday, 27 April 2006 11:13 (twenty years ago)

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