CAL passengers get a ‘serving’ of Cayman dialect
(CNS): Cayman Airways is teaching its passengers a little Caymanian vernacular with the introduction of napkins featuring select authentic Caymanian sayings and phrases. The additional serving of in-flight entertainment has been developed with the help of The Cayman Islands Dictionary by Kevin Goring, giving passengers a fun introduction to the unique linguistic heritage of the Cayman Islands, a release from the airline said.
Each napkin showcases a familiar Caymanian phrase, its pronunciation and an example of how it’s used, such as “Ereckleh” (eh-reck-leh), an adverb meaning “soon come” or “coming soon”, and the term “galavantin” (gal-a-vahn-tin), a verb meaning “exploring joyfully in search of fun or excitement”.
Paul Tibbetts, Executive Vice President Commercial Affairs and Chief Financial Officer of Cayman Airways, said the “Speak like a Caymanian” napkins were part of the airline’s broader “Uniquely Caymanian” initiative aimed at celebrating local heritage through thoughtful touches.
“This latest addition to our in-flight service is a small but meaningful way to further infuse the richness of our Caymanian culture into the travel experience,” Tibbetts said. “We are proud to be Caymanian, and we take great pride in showcasing the warmth, hospitality and craftsmanship that make the Cayman Islands so special. Our passengers deserve an experience that reflects the heart of our people, and that’s what we aim to deliver every time they fly with us.”
The new napkin series underscores Cayman Airways’ ongoing commitment to promoting local culture, celebrating community partnerships, and offering an in-flight experience that is, at its core, uniquely Caymanian, the release said.
Category: Local News, Travel
02@12:37pm – Perhaps Mr. Goring meant “galawantn”. That’s Caymanian vernacular!
Are they showing coverage of Wimbleton on the flights?
Wimbleton? Wimbledon!
How about ‘Groping ladies bottoms is Cayman culture’ in honor of Big Mac (Miami waitress criminal case).
That is being very polite.
My favourite is still ‘Chester draws’. Cracks me up every time 😂
They should Caybonics in the schools. It will help get them far in life.
Almost made me choke on my sangwich
Was that in the saloon or the salon…?
It’s absolutely appalling to see how many of you discourage us for using our dialect. You simply don’t understand the problem of telling us as a people that “you must speak THIS way,” the issue becomes: why? As long as you’re understood, and can understand others who speak the same way, what’s the harm?
For example, when you say that speakers of African American English aren’t speaking ‘properly’, despite it being just as rule-governed and coherent as “General American,” you’re lowering the status of an entire group of people, all because you can’t understand or aren’t comfortable with the dialect they’ve acquired, grown up with, and use.
For certain things — newspapers, scientific articles, and the like— a certain amount of prescriptivism is beneficial.
Further, if you actually had a grasp on the origins of the Caymanian dialect, you would realise the utterly comical irony. Its roots are literally borrowed from old English (yes, as in British) oral traditions during colonialism which were retained (due to the isolation of the island many years ago). So in other words, you’re laughing at yourself.
Cute token
But, our culture would be assisted more if our Libraries had available to lend copies of our own History Book!
Original ‘Colonialism’?
Unna need t’ talk to older people ’bout Cayman vernacular. Kudos to Mr. Goring on his dictionary but as one example highlighted, ‘gallivanting’ is not uniquely Caymanian.
But, it’s a ‘cute’ marketing tool by CAL and will be entertaining to some of their passengers.
Yes, let’s show them how good our English is.
Well at least they get a grasp on education standards.
How is “galavantin'” a uniquely Caymanian phrase. It’s just dropping the g from galivanting.
They are ALL misspelling and mispronunciation of other phrases, that’s what makes them uniquely Caymanian. Of course, each District, and smaller communities within the District, had their own pronunciations as well.
Where I grew up it was “galawantin” as we pronounced every “v” as “w” (no, no Germans amongst us to the best of my knowledge) and dropped the “g” from every “ing”, as well as replacing every “th” at the start of a word with “d”.
We didn’t say looky ya, that was West Bayers. We said lookya as one word.
Nearly every District used “ya” or “yah” for “here” as found in slave descendants of the Southeastern US where the song Kum ba yah (come by here) originated.
Ereckleh (the author’s spelling) or ereckly is again a misspelling and mispronunciation of “torectly”, also from the US South, meaning you will do something directly or right away. Where I grew up it was more like “t’reckly” which implied something done in short order, but it becomes uniquely Caymanian is the fact that our “right away” usually turns into “soon come”.
The author is quite obviously much younger than I, but I applaud his efforts.
Germans pronounce W as V not V as W. We do have German ancestry among the Whorms, Eldemire and Allenger families.
Hon Minister for Culture do you have a policy document relating to what elements of Caymanian Culture need to be preserved? How about starting with Caymanian linguistics.
One word comes to mind which is not Caymanian, but describes us to a T: “Unappeasable”.
Crabs in a bucket, but time longer than rope.
Bunch of loosers. Irregardless of their efforts, this will fail.
Pick irrespective or regardless, not both.
Boy you fool
To say nothing of loosers (sic).
People who spell losers “loosers” are just that!
I applaud them for trying something, but… with the best will in the world, this is straw grasping.
It is not a place steeped in great historical moments, and as far as culture goes, there’s not much that is truly unique to the islands. Some local dishes, a maritime history, and that’s about it. Yes, I’ve read books on the history. The transformation from a swampy mosquito plagued territory, to a financial industry powerhouse and tourist spot, whilst impressive, is not exactly gripping.
Lol! Why not just spit in our faces? That would save you the hassle of thinking up backhanded insults. Ahole.
Not at all. I’m from a much larger, older country, but I’m not taking credit for history made by others. Cayman struggles because it’s so small, and relatively new.
You just proved your lack of culture.
There are indeed so many intriguing stories (books!), historic diplomatic dispatches, and darker histories, but few Caymanians that seem open to wanting these things aired and remembered. eg. The Cayman Islands Museum in George Town embraces a disappointing hand-picked dated-assortment of 20th century recollection. It wholly ignores Cayman’s multi-century trans-Atlantic central thoroughfare role, the political and hazard significance beyond the line, the early French/Spanish/English mapping omissions/errors, the historic Lloyds ship wreck catalogues, the peculiar reasons why there are so many…the loss, the treasure, and full gritty pirates of the Caribbean dossier; the later drug boats, insurance scams; and CIA missions…in Cayman, we can actually go out and dive and snorkel this trans-Atlantic human history.
Depends whoya axe.
cayman culture is money laundering and tax evasion.
anything else is a fairytale.
Now if we could just get them to serve up a good plate of turtle 🐢 we’d be flyin’
there is a reason the civilised world does not eat turtle…think about it.
Because they don’t know what’s good for them.
Or how it tastes!
If Cayman is uncivilised place then leave and go back to the civilised world where they eat cheese with bugs in it and horses.
I do not eat turtle but I do not regard people as being uncivilized for eating it. Neither would I eat sheep intestines as is done in UK.
erm…. because they prefer Spotted Dick and Haggis?
need to get a ‘serving’ of real customer care
Love it! Now feature local musicians in flight, please.
Light on the bongos please
And a lot more free alcohol to compensate.
‘galavantin’ has nothing to do with cayman…
Did you know we also invented carnival and steel pans?
And all within the last 20 years!
Bastards. Cayman is being destroyed from within.
lol 6:46. You too bad.
And jerk chicken
Love this! something positive and Caymanian for a change.
Wonder how much this latest foolishness cost the public purse!
Bad for bashing sake. 🙄
Foolishness…..that’s another one for the napkins 🤣
👍👍👍👍👍👍
We use paper towel in Cayman
paper toweling!
And ‘Nonsense’😃