14 days of Divali – Day 3: Condiments

Trini dialect is such a wonderfully colourful language, and so much of our beloved sayings and proverbs are of course based on everybody's favourite topic – food! We use these classic expressions all the time, whether scolding a child refusing to finish their food by telling them, “better belly buss than good food waste,” or asking an unusually talkative person if they ate “parrot seed” for breakfast (or “parrot bottom” if they are talking nonsense!)

This local dialect has been continually reinvigorated and peppered with words and phrases from all of those arriving to the islands over the years, and of course many of our words are expressions that have come out of the Indo-Trinidadian community.

When, over a century and a half ago, the original indentured labourers from India crossed the kala pani, or the "dark waters" of the Atlantic, leaving behind their home in India to the unknown world of the Caribbean colonies, they brought with them their religion, their music, their culture, and their language. Though fluent speakers of Bhojpuri are few and far between these days, many of the words still live on today in our local dialect and are especially apparent in names of certain food. Words like aloo, baigan, and tawa our now all part of our shared vocabulary.

Another great Trini name is that of one of the country's favourite condiments – mother in law, or mudda in law pepper sauce – a must have at any festive occasion where curry is served. This condiment has a wonderfully comical name bringing to mind the horrors of an overbearing mother-in-law whose overpowering and fiery spirit is sure to bring her poor daughter-in-law no shortage of pain! Thankfully, there seems to be a general upswing in the treatment of in-laws these days, so hopefully the only painful mother-in-law people will have to deal with is this chunky pepper sauce.