body,td,th { font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; }
William Shakespeare, throughout his many many plays, is credited with the invention or introduction of over 1,700 words that are still in regular English usage today.
And while that's an impossible legacy to live up to, Belize may boast just as potent a wordsmith in the person of former parliamentarian Anthony "Boots" Martinez.
Back in the late 2010s he coned the term "D-E-D" for dead and this week, he added another of his gems to the kriol vernacular: "O-W-T" for out.
Tonight Cherisse Halsall takes a closer look at when three simple mismatched letters are so much more than a misspelling:
Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Former Port Loyola Area Rep
"They want Usher"
"O-W-T not O-U-T, O-W-T, they want him out."
It was a spelling so simultaneously strange and recognizable, that it immediately went viral. But those three letters became so popular not because of who said it or the context, but because it said something about kriol, that kriol pronunciation can turn a regular word into a command, "OWT!"
We asked Kriol linguist Sylvanna Udz about that societal "aha" moment of the way that word has always been expressed if not spelt.
Sylvanna Udz, Kriol Linguist
"Oh, he OWT, no I haven't seen it but the ad has it OWT, now that is the correct way for OW, bout, B-O-T, Foul, F-O-W-L, Out, O-W-T, OW is always OW, whether they did that intentionally or not I don't know if the whole thing was probably it was intentional."
Reporter:
"Some UDP's have said you know when Boots spelled that word OWT I mix so shame, what would you say about that? I would say mean I so sorry, I'm so sorry that you don't know how to read and write Kriol, alright, but I'm not ashamed I'm so proud of him…"
Sylvanna Udz, Kriol Linguist
"I wouldn't shame because when the person comes from Brazil and says the children's that we are helping, nobody says of look how Spanish is messing up his English. So, don't tell me Kriol is messing up my English it's my lack of knowledge of the rules of Kriol that Haven't been taught in school that may be messing up my English."
And while we don't know what will happen to Boots famous spelling,for sure it has graduated into political lore. Now, it's whether the UDP if they wan to OWN it or Put it OWT.
Reporter:
"So if the UDP show up in a few months with some T-shirts that say Voat deh OWT?, would you support it?"
Sylvanna Udz, Kriol Linguist
"I… well..I'm not any political…"
Reporter:
"As a Kriol linguist?"
Sylvanna Udz, Kriol Linguist
"If it is spelled Vote, VOAT Dehn OWT, maybe then…"
