gyal

gyal (plural gyals)

1. Alternative form of gayal (“Indian cattle”).

Borrowed from Jamaican Creole gyal (“girl”), from English girl.

gyal (plural gyals)

1. (MLE, MTE) Pronunciation spelling of girl.
   • 2006, “A Little Bit of Shhh”, in Vertically Challenged, performed by Lady Sovereign:

     It's cold: there's a new top gyal on road / Running t'ing, running t'ing, running t'ing – everything: oh, you've been told

   • 2019, “Vossi Bop”, performed by Stormzy:

     Man, I wouldn't even try my luck with her / Gyals say I'm boujee

   • 2022, Tom Wright, “Scene Two: Classroom”, in I Ain’t Dumb (Modern Plays), London; New York, N.Y.; Dublin: Methuen Drama, →ISBN, page 12:

     An’ here I am. Your dream problem child. A facety ghetto rude gyal grateful for your remarkable lack of judgeyness, an’ ready to be dazzled and inspired by your penetrating insight.

• gyal dem

• glyA, Lyga, -algy, agly, Algy

• gal

Derived from English girl.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡʲal/
• Hyphenation: gyal

gyal (plural gyal dem, quantified gyal)

1. girl

   Nuh ramp wid har. A bad gyal dat.

   Don't mess around with her. That girl's tough.

   • 2007, Robert Lalah, “Portia's potable water - Hot topic in cool Manchester”, in The Jamaica Gleaner‎^[1] (in English):

     “"Gyal make haste wid di water nuh man! Why you one haffi have five bucket?" one woman shouted. She kicked aside a white bucket that was under the pipe and the water from the tank started to fall on the ground. "Do nuh take it out pan di water!" a woman standing nearby shouted hysterically. […] ”

As an interjection (e.g., "'Ey gyal!") the term can take on pejorative connotations and can be extremely offensive.

• → English: gal; gyal
  • → Icelandic: gella
  • → Japanese: ギャル (gyaru)
    • → English: gyaru

• gyal at JamaicanPatwah.com
• gyal at majstro.com