Have you heard someone kiss-teeth? If you haven’t been around many Jamaicans or even people from African cultures, it is highly unlikely, but kissing teeth is one of those unspoken things that is rampant in Jamaican Patois and many other Africanized countries. You see, kissing teeth is a sound that people exposed or from the African Diaspora make when saying “give me a break” or “come on”.

I first started hearing people “kiss” (suck) their teeth as a child when my father used to do it and I’ve heard people from Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, Barbados and even Brazil do it, among other countries. It is definitely an Africanism that is now part of many cultures and languages in the Caribbean and Latin America. If you travel to Nigeria, you are likely to hear it even if it is slightly longer or louder than what you hear in Jamaica, but you will hear it in a conversation.

Recently, in a conversation with a friend in Jamaica, I heard her kiss-teeth and thought that it was definitely something people outside of Jamaica should know about, especially people wanting to learn to speak Jamaican. Words are only a piece of the puzzle. Body language and other minor details will definitely help you speaking ability.  Below is a conversation where two friends are having a conversation about a new club in Kingston, Jamaica and on more than one occasion you will hear kiss-teeth sounds.  Additionally, you get a good idea of the context in which they kiss-teeth.

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To read more about the phenomenon known as kiss-teeth, click here.