"My New Year's On You-O!"

Liberian English and in particular Liberian sayings are wonderful. One of my co-workers is in fact producing a Liberian English document that will highlight grammatical and pronunciation differences. As well, there is a whole section devoted to Liberian phrases and proverbs and their meaning. It's quite a hilarious read and I hope he puts it to print for others to enjoy.

Lately, the more familiar and popular sayings has been, "My Christmas on you-o". Meaning, "Cough it up. I need some money to pay the Christmas bills". It's of course now switched to, "My New Year's on you-o". But it has the same connotation of course. It doesn't matter who the person is, they may know you, they may not, but there is absolutely no hesitation in drawing it out over the Christmas season. You can have a bit of fun with it, and reply, "I'm sorry-o. I wen in the shower and it wash yo Christmas off-o". To which they will reply something to the affect of, "I' no possible. I' in your blood-o".

Today, one of our security guards at work said. "I' no' easy Melissa. I' Saturday an de ground i' not even-o". I of course drew a blank, and asked her to repeat. She giggled and repeated it for me. All the sudden I clued in, and realized she was asking for something small, so as to make her step easier, to make her path smoother. I just laughed it off, climbed into my car and said that I would see what I could find as I continued to drive around.

Don't worry though, these sayings are not limited to just the holiday season. Often, "my weekend on you-o", or, "my sof' drink on you-o" are commonly heard statements. I shouldn't make it sound like all the Liberian English statements are ones that are a request for funds. There are plenty-plenty others that I enjoy. I thought I would just share these ones for today.