Suck teeth lite

Back in 2015, French schools banned what they called “le tchip”, or “teeth-sucking” in class, considering it to be highly rude, offensive, and disrespectful. At that time, the move drew attention to a practice described as being derived from African and Afro-Caribbean culture.

Though, together with “cut-eye”, “steupsing” (my preferred spelling and I am sticking with it) is common throughout our region and we shared the rap for it in France, we actually have West Africa to blame/credit for its genesis.

“Steupsing” is eloquently described in a 2002 academic paper by Esther Figueroa and Peter L. Patrick as the expressive output of a “velaric ingressive airstream involving closure at two points in the mouth: against the velum (using the back of the tongue), and farther forward.”

John and Angela Rickford (1999) described both “cut-eye” and “suck teeth” as “Africanisms” now common in the “New World.”

My mother, like so many other Caribbean parents, was capable of simultaneously delivering the two admonitions to great effect. Her version seemed to rely on gratuitously moist inner cheeks, pursed lips, and impressive lung capacity. She also had a particularly dangerous “cut-eye.”

During my recent assignment in Sierra Leone, I witnessed my mother’s deep version of the “steups” a few times, though it appeared more common to encounter the “suck teeth lite” version, given the hustle and bustle of life in Freetown.

I told my friend there, acclaimed businesswoman Hannah Rolanda Max-Macarthy, that in the Caribbean we call it everything from “suck teeth”, “kiss teeth” (Jamaica), to “steupsing”, “stupesing", and “choopsing” – an act intended to express disgust, disapproval, or mere annoyance, depending on intensity in delivery.

What do you call it there, Hannah? “Suck tit.” If you’ve heard Krio being spoken, you can see how “tit” (and not “teeth”) flows smoothly. But I am NOT going to use that expression in this town.

I also consulted with Nigerian colleague/social activist, Cynthia Mbamalu (find her on Instagram, you won’t regret it), and she was surprised that “steupsing”, intended to achieve the identical impacts as in her country, was so prevalent in the Caribbean.

“Sometimes, when my mom wants to let you know you just messed things up, she drags the steups...sometimes it feels like 10 seconds long, mixed with different rhythms,” she said.

I boasted that my own mother had been capable of changing keys and probably held the record for the longest “steups” since it was five of us and she was an equal opportunity steupser.

Cynthia’s Igbo people rather elaborately call it “ima osu” – clearly not as onomatopoeic as the Trini “steups”, and even “streups” (which captures the moist sound that strengthens the impact of a proper “steups”).

My theory is that to be effective, “steupsing” should result from air sucked through extravagantly pursed lips (baby kiss style) between tightly clenched front teeth and resonate from the flapping of relaxed inner cheeks and jaw teeth generated by that air.

Habitual experts can test the limits of natural teeth, implants, and dental fillings – such is the vacuum created by intense delivery.

There are recent examples of public steupsing by important people. The French would probably be impressed at the injection of a measure of gentility in the course of an obnoxious act. “What is the question?” “Gun” … quick front teeth steups and walk away. This is “suck teeth lite” if ever there were to be such a category.

I have actually heard “suck teeth lite” more than once in polite company. Cocktails at such and such business function: “This is how they want people to vote for them? Steups!”

Ordinary folk, unlikely to be recorded or publicly quoted, draw deeply from today’s warm atmosphere, do the duck lips, and ensure the fresh air is diverted to the corners of our mouths likely to yield the loudest, most moist sound. Hence “streups”.

But, oh no, “suck teeth lite” seems to intentionally convey unfamiliarity with the passion of a true “steups.”

We all do it, don’t we? Last week, after clearing out my bank account to pay the mechanic, the left front wheel of my car encountered a new pothole along Abercromby Street in St Joseph - now normalised as apparently permanent pothole territory.

True, I should not have been having a doubles while driving but I was hungry. When the metal twisting ‘bang’ came, the quick substitute to cussing (few people have ever heard me cuss) was a deep “streups” that helped lodge a semi-consumed channa near where oxygen is supposed to enter my lungs.

“It good for you,” you say. Cue the elusive Facebook “steups” emoji.