Most visitors arrive in Costa Rica armed with a few words of Spanish. Then they reach Puerto Viejo, Cahuita or LimĂ³n, someone greets them with a cheerful wha happen, and the phrasebook suddenly feels useless. Along the Caribbean coast, many families speak Mekatelyu, the local Patois known to linguists as Limonese Creole. The name comes from the phrase “make I tell you,” or “let me tell you.”
The language arrived with the Jamaican and other West Indian workers who came from the 1870s to build the railroad to the Caribbean and later stayed to work the banana plantations. Mekatelyu is an English-based creole closely related to Jamaican Patois, with African, Spanish and Caribbean influences.
It is spoken far more than it is written, so spellings vary from one person to the next. Whether Mekatelyu counts as a language or a dialect is a long-running debate, and linguists still do not fully agree. One handy rule unlocks a lot of words: the th sound mostly disappears. A soft th, as in think, becomes a t, so three is tree, thing is ting and thanks is tanks. A hard th, as in this, becomes a d, so this is dis, that is dat and though is doh.
Them becomes dem, which also does the job of making plurals. Di pickney dem means the children, and tree ting doh means three things, though. You do not need to be fluent. Locals appreciate the effort, and a few words go a long way at a soda, on a bus or at the beach.
A Mekatelyu starter kit
- Wha happen: What’s up, or how are you. It is a greeting, not a sign that something went wrong.
- Mi deh yah: I’m here, or I’m doing fine. The classic answer to wha happen.
- Aright: Alright, used for hello, goodbye, OK and everything in between.
- Tank yu: Thank you.
- Weh yu deh?: Where are you? Useful when your friend says they are on the way.
- Soon come: I’ll be right there. On Caribbean time this can mean five minutes or two hours.
- Likkle more: See you later.
- Nyam: To eat. Wi a go nyam means we are going to eat.
- Pickney: Child or children.
- Bredda and sista: Brother and sister, used for friends as much as family.
- Mek wi go: Let’s go.
- How much fi dis?: How much for this? Handy at a fruit stand or craft table.
- Tek it easy: Take it easy, the unofficial motto of the coast.
Words for the table
Food has its own vocabulary too, and Caribbean cooking is where many visitors first hear it. Rice and beans is cooked in coconut milk, usually with red beans, and is not the same thing as gallo pinto, so do not confuse the two in front of a cook.
Rundown, called rondĂ³n in Spanish, is a rich coconut stew of fish or seafood and root vegetables. A patty, or patĂ, is a spicy turnover sold from coolers and bakeries all along the coast, and pan bon is a sweet dark bread with roots in the old West Indian kitchens.
A few tips
Speak slowly and smile, and do not worry about getting the accent right. Avoid imitating the accent as a joke, which can come across as mocking. If someone answers you in English, Spanish or Patois, follow their lead. Many people on the coast move between all three in a single conversation.
Most of all, listen. The best way to learn Mekatelyu is the way it has always been passed on, at a kitchen table, on a porch or with a calypso playing in the background. LimĂ³n calypso is now recognized as part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage and even appears on a new â‚¡100 coin, and events such as Puerto Viejo’s Wolaba Parade are a good place to hear all of it at once.
Mek wi go.
