The Dictionary was project I first launched in 1995 as I became intrigued by the new Jamaican language being used by young people, a language strongly influenced by dancehall music.
I mean, when I heard girls being described as buffilous (meaning sexy) and a machete being called a 28, I became really curious as these new words and phrases had no relationship to what we considered standard Patois, our traditional language.
The first edition of the dictionary was only 32 pages and now the 6th edition is 184 pages. That gives you an idea of how quickly this new/improved language is growing among young people.
I have certainly have had a great deal of fun too keeping up with the evolution.. So for example, when they say "Gi mi a struggle pan di bady nuh dawta" I define it into standard English as "May I have this dance please".
The cartoons done by Shawn Grant to help me get the meanings across have been really funny yet explanatory too.
The paperback edition is also still available at Amazon.com.
Anyway I am absolutely in love with the digital age for I love to write and I can now say goodbye to printers who give you deadlines that they have no intention of ever keeping then deliver sub standard material. With ebooks, there are now no use for printers and better yet, you can up date them easily with the click of a mouse.
I am now excitedly working assiduously to have the 4th edition of "Tour Jamaica" ready to be my next ebook.
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