Subject: Re: ghaut instincts<br/>
Date: Apr 13, 2002 @ 17:18<br/>
Author: ps1966nl (&quot;ps1966nl&quot; &lt;smaardijk@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-477282052">From the &quot;Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage&quot; by Richard Allsopp <br/>
(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996):<br/>
<br/>
ghaut (ghut, gut) n (Montserrat, St. Kitts, Virgin Islands) 1. A <br/>
valley or cleft in a mountain- or hill-side, esp one down wh water <br/>
runs to the sea after rains. _The Police and Preventive Officers are <br/>
now carrying the fight to the ghauts, hills and mountains where <br/>
illicit distilleries of &#39;hammond&#39; operate._- 2. [By extension] Any <br/>
stream of water running into the sea, but esp one coming down the <br/>
hill-side. _If you drink the water of Runaway Ghaut, you&#39;re bound to <br/>
come back to Montserrat._- (Montserrat saying) [Prob a colonial <br/>
transfer of Anglo-Indian _ghaut_&lt; Hindi _ghat_ &#39;a landing stage at a <br/>
river, and the path of descent to it&#39; (N.B. This name is still used <br/>
for a riverside washing platform by East Indians in _Guyn_). Cp _OED <br/>
ghaut_ 2. &#39;a mountain pass&#39; (of Anglo-Indian origin); however, see <br/>
Note at GUT]<br/>
<br/>
This is that note:<br/>
<br/>
gut n See GHAUT _... and when my mother went to the gut to wash <br/>
clothes, I would run down to the hill to Mr Christian&#39;s home, which <br/>
was about two city blocks away._- (...)<br/>
<br/>
Peter S.<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="qreply"> --- In BoundaryPoint@y..., &quot;acroorca2002&quot; &lt;orc@o...&gt; wrote:<br/>
&gt; it has been so beguiling to be presented with apparent evidence of <br/>
&gt; hindi scribbled all over the map of a few select windward islands<br/>
&gt; ghaut in montserrat<br/>
&gt; ghut in st kitts & nevis<br/>
&gt; & now ghut & gut in the virgins albeit less so<br/>
&gt; & evidently nowhere else in the world this side of the original <br/>
ghats <br/>
&gt; on the one hand or singapore on the other<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; & i would like to account for this highly peculiar isolated <br/>
migration <br/>
&gt; of the word<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; so absent any other evidence of east indian migration <br/>
&gt; my instincts are telling me there was either some british imperial <br/>
&gt; usage & transference of the word direct from india <br/>
&gt; or else its arrival in the west indies was more indirect & via some <br/>
&gt; intermediate or cognate indo european word in one of the celtic or <br/>
&gt; british dialects brought to the west indies by the original settlers<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; or possibly this word is actually from somewhere in africa or <br/>
europe <br/>
&gt; or even indigenous & unrelated to the hindi word yet of similar <br/>
sound <br/>
&gt; & meaning <br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; actually this latter explanation seems most likely at this point <br/>
but <br/>
&gt; i have run out of hard evidence<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; m </span></blockquote></div>