This morning I brought in some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for our department to enjoy. It's what I do. I like to share!
And as we prepped the machine to brew the liquid gold, I said "IRIE" with a giggle. That set us into a discussion of what IRIE meant. In my limited understanding, that meant "alright" in a "Jamaican dialect". Little did I know that one on our team was well versed in the dialect of Iyaric.
And so, as we waited for the coffee to brew, a group of us started to chat about Jamaica and the depth of the dialect of Iyaric.
On the very tip of the iceberg, Iyaric is Rastafarian created dialect that replaces "me" with "I" in their common Jamaican English. Instead of focusing on "me", which is seen as self-centered and objectifying, they choose to focus on "I" emphasizing the individual and, at the same time, the concept of oneness. (As in God is within all men.) "Me" being inward viewing and "I" being outward viewing.
Interesting. Deep. I had no idea. I love learning and today, by chance, I learned something new about a word that I picked up on a trip to a different country. I learned this new information, not while travelling in Jamaica, but while back at home in Canada. What a strange and wonderful world we live in!
Moments sharing a new fun word: "IRIE".
Moments digging deeper and understanding the philosophical history meaning of the word and the dialect it comes from.
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