Patois translations...

[mber]

thanks guys....apprectiate the help! ...the ever elusive "palavin' spree".....hmmph.

[Jason Allen]

I always think of Wa Do Dem as being more like "what are they doing?"

[Return of Jesco]

I saw Eek in concert in Glasgow many years ago and he said that it meant "What do they think they are doing?", but his explanation probably varies with his audience!

[Keromak128]

This message is for Selector J & Mber.
In reference to your question about how could Wayne Smith be under his selling thing/Sling Ting/Sleng Teng. He is under his selling thing by smokeing it It's not literally under it but more like Under the influence of it. You know....

Mr Mber I don't know if this is true or not. I always believed that Palava, Palavin, Palavin Spree. Had a reference a woman that is a golddigger or a person who is only out for a persons money mostly in refernce to women. So I guess a "Palavin Spreee would be something similar to when a woman takes a man for all the moneys he's got and leaves him broke. There is a 1991's tune called "palava" by Danny Asher. The lyrics are "she wanta see a big pretty house, she wanta see a flashy flashy benz car, you a fe bounce pon me corner before you want come palava" Also "She nah deal with love & harmony her main atracttion is vanity". So you can see my refernce point. Interesting question though I would like to know the where the root of this word originated.
Respect.
Easy
~Keromak128

[ACEtone]

Wa-Do-Dem
What do them (What are they doing?)
Is that hard to understand? Did I miss something?
Listen more and the meanings come more clearly over time. A different inflection with some inversions.
Patois has some remnants of 16c English which the Irish share so it is not so hard for me.

I couldn't care less about the other stuff!

[ras_gaks]

Wa-Do-Dem
What do them (What are they doing?)

this has been my interpretation all along...

[Selector J]

ACEtone:
The "Wa-Do-Dem" confusion has basically evolved in my mind to "Why Do Them" vs "What Do Them" which aren't *too* dissimilar in definition. I read somewhere that it meant "How do they do it" which was the initial point of confusion and since I don't know the culture first hand, I thought I'd throw it out here to the forum to see if anyone who did know the culture first hand had a more definitive understanding... so don't mind me. Just wondering aloud.

Keromak:
Thanks for the Sleng Teng point, Keromak. I am completely satisfied with that definition now!

mber:
As far as "Palaving Spree" goes... there's a Toyan track with a title under that name which tells of his many romantic exploits while on tour. So it must have something to do with the many... er... casual encounters that an artist finds himself involved with on tour.

I always assumed palaving was related to the word "palaver" which has several definitions but none seem to fit exactly so I may be barking up the wrong tree here. My guess is that it is relateed to the exchange of flatteries and the related persuasion that occurs... but this is merely a weakly supported hypothesis.

Dictionary.com link: [palaver](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/palaver)

Thanks for all the comments and guesses even if you "couldn't care less about the other stuff!"

[Keromak128]

Ok here is a phrase I was always interested in the meaning of..
"Fire de a mus mus tail and take a cool breeze".

Frankie Paul did a tune/album under this name and I have pondered this phrase for years but have not been able to come up with a solid translation for it. I feel it would be described as something similar to this. When things & times get hot you need to keep your cool. If anyone can reply to help me get a solid overstanding of this I would really appreciate it....
Respect....
Easy

[bwoyrough]

The eek-a-mouse thing is simply:
Why do they do that? or this?

The word Palaver i'm guessing simply comes from the english word which means basically, a palaver is like a big whole fuss, a big mess up, or to describe alot of confusion or hassle.
You could use the word palaver for example, if you bought something from the shop and had something wrong with it, u take it back and had a fuss at the counter, this could be described as a Palaver.

I have found that Jamaican's use alot of words like this taken from english, words that we rarely use, and sometimes, some quite posh words usually only spoken by the upper class. Maybe this has links to the history of the island with the slavery, with the high class white society+ slave masters, thats my guess of where some of these words come from.

Another thing i find is that different Jamaicans will give different translations of the same words, you can see this clearly in several of the patois phrase books, and some interpretations can be completely different, not sure why this is? perhaps the people writing these books aren't Jamaican!

[ico4498]

Wa do dem - What's up with them? He is commenting on people's attitude re. his 'too short' girlfriend.

Sleng Teng - Long before the tune this was a reference to slim girls. literally though, slim thing.