Kareem-Nelson Hull spent years collecting 1,731 words and phrases from everyday conversation across the British Virgin Islands, then published them in a 353-page dictionary so that visitors and future generations could “say it like we.” The project started with a single suggestion from a friend at the Ministry of Education and Culture.
On a hot afternoon in Road Town, Tortola, you might hear someone say “She going on wassie” and the person next to them nod knowingly. The phrase can mean she is misbehaving, or she is having a good time, or both at once. That ambiguity — the way a single expression carries judgment and celebration in the same breath — is exactly the kind of linguistic knot that tells you more about a place than any guidebook description. This article traces the sayings, grammatical patterns, and vocabulary choices that reveal how people in the British Virgin Islands understand community, time, respect, and pleasure. For curious travelers, language learners, and anyone who has ever wondered what a phrase like “Tek it on” actually means when it rolls off a Tortola tongue.
Yes, the British Virgin Islands has a distinct set of sayings and expressions that reflect its culture — but these are not uniform across the territory, nor are they frozen in time. The language is a living creole with regional variation, generational splits, and ongoing debate about which words belong in the official record. Understanding a few phrases opens a door, but only if you treat them as entry points into a complex system, not souvenirs.
| Phrase / Word | Meaning | Cultural Insight | Usage Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wassie | Misbehaving or having a good time (context-dependent) | Reflects a relaxed attitude toward boundary-testing; younger-generation term | “She going on wassie” |
| Melee monger | A person who gossips and shares news continuously | Highlights the importance of oral information networks in small-island communities | “Don’t be a melee monger, nah” |
| She ugly, ugly | Repetition for extreme emphasis | Grammatical doubling as a intensifier — common across Caribbean English creoles | “That food good, good” |
| The shoes them | “Them” added to mark plural | Distinct pluralization strategy; shows creole grammatical logic at work | “Pass the book them” |
| Sometimish | Inconsistent, unreliable, happening only sometimes | Encapsulates a tolerant attitude toward unpredictability; excluded from first edition | “He is sometimish with his promises” |
None of these phrases exist in isolation. They belong to a broader linguistic system that Kareem-Nelson Hull, a graduate of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and former President of the Caribbean Students Association at the University of Miami, spent years documenting. His book, The Virgin Islands Dictionary: A Collection of Words and Phrases So You Can Say It Like We, is the most comprehensive attempt to date to capture everyday BVI speech on paper. The idea came from a friend, the late Joyce Leslie, who was working as an Information Officer at the Ministry of Education and Culture when she suggested that Hull write about the Virgin Islands experience. The first compilation of words came from conversations with friends like Gorvey Henry, personal notes from Hull’s own daily interactions, and contributions from people across the islands who sent in words and phrases they considered uniquely BVI.
The Dictionary as a Cultural Archive
Hull’s dictionary is not a dry academic exercise. It includes phonetic spelling to preserve authentic pronunciation, a deliberate choice that acknowledges the gap between how creole sounds and how standard English orthography represents it. The 1,731 entries cover everything from common greetings to niche slang, and the 353 pages include words that older generations use daily alongside younger-generation terms that entered the language more recently. After the book went to print, Hull added 12 younger-generation words, including “wassie” and “melee monger,” showing that the dictionary is a living document rather than a closed record.
Joyce Leslie, an Information Officer at the Ministry of Education and Culture, suggested Hull write about the Virgin Islands experience. The concept was further shaped through conversations with Caribbean students in the Cayman Islands in 2012.
Hull gathered words from conversations with friends like Gorvey Henry, personal notes from daily interactions, reading other Virgin Islands books, and continuous contributions from people across the islands who sent in words and phrases.
Some words and phrases were intentionally left out of the first edition — including “Mame look,” “Tek it on,” “Bark you a slap,” “Jumbie Horse,” “Bust Chest,” and others — either because they were considered too sensitive or because their meanings were still contested.
The first edition launched at Clover’s in Road Town, Tortola. A second book, The Virgin Islands Book of Proverbs, is in production with artist illustrations and is expected around July, timed to Territory Day and August Festival.
The decision to exclude certain words is itself revealing. The 12 words and phrases that did not make the first edition include “Mame look,” “Tek it on,” “Bark you a slap” (originally “dab you a slap”), “Jumbie Horse,” “Bust Chest,” “Rebutit,” “Sick and Shut In,” “See and Don’t See,” “Done off,” “Blast,” “Good Ground,” “Sometimish,” “Valice,” “Mama cut,” “BVI Heritage Dancers,” “Valley,” “Cyad,” “Whup it tuhp,” “Wassi,” “Drawing (bush),” “Melee Monger,” “Buss it Down (eat),” and “Buss a Pot (to cook).” The fact that some of these — like “Jumbie Horse” (a folkloric figure) and “Mame look” (a specific social gesture) — were left out suggests that the dictionary is not simply a neutral record but a negotiated document shaped by judgments about propriety, generational relevance, and regional specificity.
Outsiders sometimes assume that Caribbean English creoles are simply “broken English” or casual slang. Linguists and lexicographers like Hull treat them as full grammatical systems with their own rules — repetition-as-emphasis, distinct pluralization, and context-dependent meanings are not errors but features. Calling a phrase “slang” can erase the systematic logic behind it.
What the Grammar Reveals About Worldview
Take the repetition pattern. “She ugly, ugly” does not mean the same thing as “She is very ugly.” The doubling does something different — it signals that the quality is so striking it cannot be expressed with a single instance. Linguists call this “reduplication for intensification,” and it appears across Caribbean English creoles. In BVI speech, it is not limited to adjectives. You might hear “slow, slow” to mean extremely slow, or “hot, hot” to mean scorching. The pattern suggests a worldview in which emphasis is performed through repetition rather than through adverbs like “very” or “extremely.” It is a grammatical choice that prioritizes rhythm and oral clarity over written efficiency.
Pluralization with “them” — as in “the shoes them” or “the book them” — follows a similar logic. Standard English marks plural once, on the noun itself. BVI creole marks it separately, using “them” as a plural marker that follows the noun. This is not a mistake. It is a consistent grammatical rule that aligns BVI creole with other creole languages around the world. The fact that “them” can also serve as a possessive marker (“that is John them house”) shows how the same word does different grammatical work depending on context.
Younger-Generation Words and the Shifting Landscape
After the dictionary went to print, Hull added 12 younger-generation words, including “wassie” and “melee monger.” The inclusion of “wassie” is particularly interesting because it can mean two opposite things depending on tone and context. “She going on wassie” might mean she is misbehaving in a way that disrupts social norms, or it might mean she is having the time of her life. The ambiguity is not a flaw — it is a feature of a language that relies heavily on shared context and nonverbal cues. In a small-island community where everyone knows everyone, you do not always need to specify whether you are criticizing or celebrating. The listener already knows the situation.
“Melee monger” — a person who gossips and shares news continuously — reflects the centrality of oral networks in BVI life. On islands where news travels fast and information is a form of social currency, the “melee monger” is both a valued informant and a potential nuisance. The term carries a double edge, much like “wassie,” and its inclusion in the dictionary acknowledges that gossip is not just a pastime but a structural feature of community life.
Context and Comparison: BVI Creole in the Caribbean Family
BVI English creole shares features with other Caribbean English creoles, but it also has its own distinct vocabulary and pronunciation. The following table compares some structural features across several related creoles, based on documented linguistic research.
| Feature | BVI Creole | Jamaican Creole | Barbadian Creole (Bajan) | Trinidadian Creole |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repetition for emphasis | Common (“She ugly, ugly”) | Common (“She ugly ugly”) | Present but less frequent | Present but less frequent |
| Plural marker | “them” after noun (“the shoes them”) | “dem” after noun (“the shoes dem”) | “them” after noun (“the shoes them”) | “them” after noun (“the shoes them”) |
| Second-person plural pronoun | Often “you all” or “all yuh” | “unu” (influenced by Igbo) | “all yuh” or “y’all” | “all yuh” or “allyuh” |
| Copula (“to be”) omission | Common in certain contexts | Common (“She pretty”) | Common (“She pretty”) | Common (“She pretty”) |
| Lexical distinctiveness from English | Moderate — many words share roots with English but have shifted meanings | High — significant African-language retention | Moderate — some distinct vocabulary | Moderate — influenced by French creole and Spanish |
The similarities across these creoles are not coincidental. They share a common historical origin in the transatlantic slave trade, which brought speakers of different West African languages into contact with English-speaking plantation owners. The grammatical structures that emerged — repetition for emphasis, separate plural markers, copula omission — are not English errors but African language patterns that survived and adapted. The differences, meanwhile, reflect the specific histories of each island: BVI creole has less French influence than St. Lucian or Trinidadian creole, and less African lexical retention than Jamaican, but it has its own distinct vocabulary shaped by the territory’s particular history of maritime trade, small-scale agriculture, and tourism.
If you hear a phrase you do not understand, ask a BVI friend or acquaintance directly — most people are happy to explain, and the explanation itself is often a window into local values. Avoid guessing or using a phrase you just learned in a formal or unfamiliar context until you are sure of its tone and register. “Wassie” among close friends is one thing; “wassie” in a business meeting is another.
- BVI creole is a full grammatical system with consistent rules — not a casual or broken version of English.
- Phrases like “wassie” and “melee monger” reveal how BVI communities navigate social reputation, information sharing, and boundary-testing.
- The dictionary project by Kareem-Nelson Hull shows that language preservation is a contested, generational process — not every word makes the cut, and the exclusions are as revealing as the inclusions.
- Repetition and “them”-pluralization are not quirks but structural features that prioritize oral clarity and community context.
Questions Readers Ask
Is BVI creole the same as the creole spoken in the US Virgin Islands?
No, though they share many features. The USVI and BVI have different political histories, and their creoles have diverged somewhat in vocabulary and pronunciation. A BVI speaker can generally understand a USVI speaker and vice versa, but locals can usually tell which island someone is from within a few sentences.
Why were some words excluded from the dictionary?
Hull and his contributors made deliberate choices about which words and phrases to include in the first edition. Some were left out because they were considered too sensitive, others because their meanings were still debated, and still others because they were seen as generational or regional rather than broadly BVI. The excluded list includes “Mame look,” “Tek it on,” “Bark you a slap,” “Jumbie Horse,” and “Sometimish,” among others. A second edition may reconsider some of these.
Can a visitor use BVI phrases without sounding disrespectful?
Yes, but with care. Using a phrase like “good morning” or “good afternoon” in BVI creole pronunciation is generally welcomed as a sign of effort. More casual or slangy terms like “wassie” are best reserved for informal settings where you have already built rapport. The safest approach is to listen first, then follow the lead of the person you are speaking with.
Is the language dying out among younger generations?
It is changing, not dying. Younger BVI speakers use some words their grandparents do not, and they may use English more in formal or digital contexts. But the creole remains the primary spoken language in everyday life across the islands. Hull’s addition of 12 younger-generation words to the dictionary after it went to print suggests that the language is evolving rather than receding.
Where can I find the dictionary?
The first edition launched at Clover’s in Road Town, Tortola, and a virtual launch was planned for mid-December. Updates are available on Facebook at @TheVirginIslandsDictionary and on Instagram at @vilifestyle. The second book, The Virgin Islands Book of Proverbs, is expected around July, timed to Territory Day and August Festival.
What the Language Says About the Place
Every phrase in the BVI vocabulary carries a trace of the conditions that shaped it — the need to emphasize without relying on written punctuation, the importance of knowing who is speaking and why, the tolerance for ambiguity when context supplies the missing pieces. A phrase like “she going on wassie” works because the community already knows the person, the situation, and the tone. That reliance on shared context is not a limitation of the language. It is a reflection of a society where relationships are dense, history is long, and most of the important information passes through conversation, not documents. The dictionary helps preserve the words, but the real meaning lives in the people who use them, and the best way to understand it is to listen carefully — and then ask.
For more on how BVI speech reflects deeper cultural values, read Exploring Heartfelt Greetings in British Virgin Islands Creole.
Sources and further reading
Kareem-Nelson Hull. “The Virgin Islands Dictionary: A Collection of Words and Phrases So You Can Say It Like We.” 🔗
H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. Language and Culture Program. 🔗
Related reading on IslandHopperGuides
The Art of Liming: More Than Just Relaxing, It’s a BVI Way of Life — explores another dimension of BVI social life through the concept of “liming.”
Navigating BVI Etiquette: Tips for Respectful and Immersive Travel — practical guidance on social norms and communication.
Explore Places to Stay in BVI
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