Dayclean

Dayclean, meaning “daybreak” or “dawn,” is common among speakers of Gullah in South Carolina and Georgia. This is part of a complete episode.

Transcript of “Dayclean”

As I mentioned, I’ve been reading up on expressions that you would hear in South Carolina.

And of course, the Gullah language there on the coast is really fascinating.

And one of my favorite new to me expressions from Gullah is the term day clean.

Day clean? What is that?

It’s a term for daybreak.

Day break.

You know, like I was worrying at day clean.

So how did that get, is that English or does it just sound like English?

No, it’s English, but it’s probably a translation of a Wolof expression.

Oh, okay. So that’s a West African language, right?

Senegal, I think is where they speak Wolof.

That’s super cool. The Gullah language is amazing, right?

Yes, we should do a whole show on location in South Carolina.

At the very least, we recommend that you Google Gullah, G-U-L-L-A-H.

You will find that delightful and interesting.

In the meantime, send us questions to words@waywordradio.org.

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