Jamaican English Creole
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Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an
English-based creole language An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the '' lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the cre ...
with
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
n influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the
Jamaican diaspora The Jamaican diaspora refers to the body of Jamaicans who have left the island of Jamaica, their dispersal and to a lesser extent the subsequent developments of their culture. Jamaicans can be found in the far corners of the world, but the large ...
. A majority of the non-English words in Patois come from the West African Akan language. It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a
native language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
. Patois developed in the 17th century when enslaved people from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned, and nativized the
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
and
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
al forms of English spoken by the slaveholders:
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
, Scots, and
Hiberno-English Hiberno-English (from Latin '' Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland ...
. Jamaican Creole exhibits a gradation between more conservative creole forms that are not significantly mutually intelligible with English, and forms virtually identical to Standard English. Jamaicans refer to their language as ''
Patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...
'', a term also used as a lower-case noun as a catch-all description of pidgins, creoles, dialects, and
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
s worldwide. Creoles, including Jamaican Patois, are often stigmatized as a low-
prestige Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...
language even when spoken as the mother tongue by the majority of the local population. Jamaican pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from English despite heavy use of English words or derivatives. Significant Jamaican Patois-speaking communities exist among Jamaican expatriates in South Florida,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
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,
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,
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
,
Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
, Costa Rica, the Cayman Islands, and
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, as well as
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
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,
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, and
Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
. The Cayman Islands in particular have a very large Jamaican Patois-speaking community, with 16.4% of the population conversing in the language. A mutually intelligible variety is found in San Andrés y Providencia Islands, Colombia, brought to the island by descendants of
Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...
(escaped slaves) in the 18th century. Mesolectal forms are similar to very basilectal Belizean Kriol. Jamaican Patois exists mainly as a
spoken language A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a si ...
and is also heavily used for musical purposes, especially in reggae and dancehall as well as other genres. Although standard British English is used for most writing in Jamaica, Jamaican Patois has gained ground as a
literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
for almost a hundred years. Claude McKay published his book of Jamaican poems ''Songs of Jamaica'' in 1912. Patois and English are frequently used for stylistic contrast (
codeswitching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...
) in new forms of Internet writing.


Phonology

Accounts of basilectal Jamaican Patois (that is, its most divergent rural varieties) suggest around 21
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
s with an additional phoneme () in the Western dialect. There are between nine and sixteen
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s. Some vowels are capable of nasalization and others can be lengthened. : The status of as a phoneme is dialectal: in western varieties, it is a full phoneme and there are minimal pairs ( 'hit' and 'eat'); in central and eastern varieties, vowel-initial words take an initial after vowel-final words, preventing the two vowels from falling together, so that the words for 'hand' and 'and' (both underlyingly ) may be pronounced or . : The palatal stops and are considered phonemic by some accounts and
phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
by others. For the latter interpretation, their appearance is included in the larger phenomenon of phonetic palatalization. Examples of palatalization include: * → → ('a quarter quart (of rum)') * → → ('guard') * → → ('weak') Voiced stops are
implosive Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. Ro ...
whenever in the onset of prominent syllables (especially word-initially) so that ('beat') is pronounced and ('good') as . Before a syllabic , the contrast between alveolar and
velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
consonants has been historically neutralized with alveolar consonants becoming velar so that the word for 'bottle' is and the word for 'idle' is . Jamaican Patois exhibits two types of
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
; peripheral vowel harmony, wherein only sequences of peripheral vowels (that is, , , and ) can occur within a syllable; and back harmony, wherein and cannot occur within a syllable together (that is, and are allowed but and are not). These two phenomena account for three long vowels and four diphthongs:


Sociolinguistic variation

Jamaican Patois features a
creole continuum A post-creole continuum (or simply creole continuum) is a dialect continuum of varieties of a creole language between those most and least similar to the superstrate language (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted d ...
(or a ''linguistic continuum''): the variety of the language closest to the
lexifier A lexifier is the language that provides the basis for the majority of a pidgin or creole language's vocabulary (lexicon). Often this language is also the dominant, or superstrate language, though this is not always the case, as can be seen in the ...
language (the
acrolect A post-creole continuum (or simply creole continuum) is a dialect continuum of varieties of a creole language between those most and least similar to the superstrate language (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted d ...
) cannot be distinguished systematically from intermediate varieties (collectively referred to as the mesolect) or even from the most divergent rural varieties (collectively referred to as the basilect). This situation came about with contact between speakers of a number of Niger–Congo languages and various dialects of English, the latter of which were all perceived as prestigious and the use of which carried socio-economic benefits. The span of a speaker's command of the continuum generally corresponds to social context.


Grammar

The tense/aspect system of Jamaican Patois is fundamentally unlike that of English. There are no morphologically marked past
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s; instead, two different participle words exist: ''en'' and ''a''. These are not
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
s, but rather invariant particles that cannot stand alone (like the English ''to be''). Their function also differs from those of English. According to Bailey (1966), the progressive category is marked by . Alleyne (1980) claims that marks the progressive and that the habitual aspect is unmarked but by its accompaniment with words such as "always", "usually", etc. (i.e. is absent as a grammatical category). Mufwene (1984) and Gibson and Levy (1984) propose a past-only habitual category marked by as in ('where we used to live is not as cold as here'). For the present tense, an uninflected verb combining with an iterative adverb marks habitual meaning as in ('Tom always knows when Katy tells/has told about him'). * ''en'' is a tense indicator * ''a'' is an aspect marker * ''(a) go'' is used to indicate the future * Mi run () ** I run (habitually); I ran * Mi a run or Mi de run, ( ''or'' ) ** I am running * A run mi did a run, ( ''or'' ) ** I was running * Mi did run ( ''or'' ) ** I have run; I had run * Mi a go run () ** I am going to run; I will go on a run As in other Caribbean Creoles (that is,
Guyanese Creole Guyanese English Creole (''Creolese'' by its speakers or simply Guyanese) is an English-based creole language spoken by the Guyanese people. Linguistically, it is similar to other English dialects of the Caribbean region, based on 19th-century ...
and San Andrés-Providencia Creole;
Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...
is excluded) has a number of functions, including: * Directional, dative, or benefactive preposition ** Dem a fight fi wi () ('They are fighting for us') * Genitive preposition (that is, marker of possession) ** Dat a fi mi book () ('that's my book') * Modal auxiliary expressing obligation or futurity ** Him fi kom up ya () ('he ought to come up here') * Pre-infinitive complementizer ** Unu haffi kiip sumting far di guinea people-dem fi biit dem muzik () ('you have to contribute something to the Guinean People for playing their music')


Pronominal system

The
pronominal In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...
system of Standard English has a four-way distinction of person, number, gender and case. Some varieties of Jamaican Patois do not have the gender or case distinction, but all varieties distinguish between the second person singular and plural (you). * I, me = * you, you (singular) = * he, him = (pronounced in the basilect varieties) * she, her = ''or'' (no gender distinction in basilect varieties) * we, us, our = * you (plural) = * they, them, their =


Copula

* the Jamaican Patois
equative The term equative (or equational) is used in linguistics to refer to constructions where two entities are equated with each other. For example, the sentence ''Susan is our president'', equates two entities "Susan" and "our president". In English, ...
verb is also ''a'' ** e.g. ('I am the teacher') * Jamaican Patois has a separate locative verb ''deh'' ** e.g. ''or'' ('we are in London') * with true adjectives in Jamaican Patois, no copula is needed ** e.g. ('I am old now') This is akin to Spanish in that both have two distinct forms of the verb "to be" – ''ser'' and ''estar'' – in which ''ser'' is equative and ''estar'' is locative. Other languages, such as Portuguese and Italian, make a similar distinction. (See
Romance Copula In some of the Romance languages the copula, the equivalent of the verb ''to be'' in English, is relatively complex compared to its counterparts in other languages. A copula is a word that links the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a ...
.)


Negation

* is used as a present tense negator: ** ('If the cow knew that his throat wasn't capable of swallowing a pear seed, he wouldn't have swallowed it') * is used in the same way as English ''can't'' ** ('It is a poor thing that can't mash an ant') * is a negative past participle. ** ('John did not steal the money')


Orthography

Patois has long been written with various respellings compared to English so that, for example, the word "there" might be written , , or , and the word "three" as , , or . Standard English spelling is often used and a nonstandard spelling sometimes becomes widespread even though it is neither phonetic nor standard (e.g. for , 'child'). In 2002, the Jamaican Language Unit was set up at the University of the West Indies at Mona to begin standardizing the language, with the aim of supporting non-English-speaking Jamaicans according to their constitutional guarantees of equal rights, as services of the state are normally provided in English, which a significant portion of the population cannot speak fluently. The vast majority of such persons are speakers of Jamaican Patois. It was argued that failure to provide services of the state in a language in such general use or discriminatory treatment by officers of the state based on the inability of a citizen to use English violates the rights of citizens. The proposal was made that freedom from discrimination on the ground of language be inserted into the Charter of Rights. They standardized the Jamaican alphabet as follows: Nasal vowels are written with ''-hn'', as in ''kyaahn'' (can't) and ''iihn'' (isn't it?) ''h'' is written according to local pronunciation, so that ''hen'' (hen) and ''en'' (end) are distinguished in writing for speakers of western Jamaican, but not for those of central Jamaican.


Vocabulary

Jamaican Patois contains many loanwords, most of which are African in origin, primarily from
Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...
(a dialect of
Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan * Central Tano languages, a language group ...
). Many loanwords come from English, but are also borrowed from
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
,
Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...
and
African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...
, as well as Scottish and
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
dialects. Examples from African languages include meaning ''that'' (in the sense of "he told me that..." = ), taken from Ashanti
Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...
, and
Duppy Duppy is a word of African origin commonly used in various Caribbean islands, including Barbados and Jamaica, meaning ghost or spirit.
meaning ''ghost'', taken from the Twi word ''dupon'' ('cotton tree root'), because of the African belief of malicious spirits originating in the root of trees (in Jamaica and Ghana, particularly the cotton tree known in both places as "Odom"). The pronoun , used for the plural form of ''you'', is taken from the
Igbo language Igbo ( , ; Igbo: ''Ásụ̀sụ́ Ìgbò'' ) is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, a meta-ethnicity from Southeastern Nigeria. The number of Igboid languages depends on how one classifies a language versus a dialect, so ...
. ''Red eboe'' describes a fair-skinned black person because of the reported account of fair skin among the
Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...
in the mid 1700s. ''De'' meaning ''to be'' (at a location) comes from Yoruba. From the Ashanti-Akan, comes the term ''Obeah'' which means witchcraft, from the Ashanti Twi word ''Ɔbayi'' which also means "witchcraft". Words from Hindi include '' ganja'' (marijuana). ''Pickney'' or ''pickiney'' meaning child, taken from an earlier form ('' piccaninny'') was ultimately borrowed from the Portuguese ''pequenino'' (the diminutive of ''pequeno'', small) or Spanish ''pequeño'' ('small'). There are many words referring to popular produce and food items—''
ackee The ackee, also known as ankye, achee, akee, ackee apple or ayee (''Blighia sapida'') is a fruit of the Sapindaceae ( soapberry) family, as are the lychee and the longan. It is native to tropical West Africa. The scientific name honours Captain ...
'', ''
callaloo Callaloo (many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux or callalloo; ) is a popular Caribbean vegetable dish. There are many variants across the Caribbean, depending on the availability of local vegetables. The main in ...
'', ''
guinep ''Melicoccus bijugatus'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalized across the New World tropics including South and Central America, and parts of the Caribbean. Its stone-bearing fruits are edible. It is ...
'', ''bammy'', ''
roti Roti (also known as chapati) is a round flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent. It is popular in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Trini ...
'', ''
dal In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pu ...
'', ''kamranga''. See
Jamaican cuisine Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavours and spices influenced by Amerindian, African, Irish, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern people who have inhabited the island. It is also ...
. Jamaican Patois has its own rich variety of swearwords. One of the strongest is ''bloodclaat'' (along with related forms ''raasclaat'', ''bomboclaat'', ''pussyclaat'' and others—compare with ''
bloody ''Bloody'', as an adjective or adverb, is a commonly used expletive attributive in British English, Australian English, Irish English, Indian English and a number of other Commonwealth nations. It has been used as an intensive since at lea ...
'' in Australian English and
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
, which is also considered a profanity). Homosexual men may be referred to with the pejorative term , fish or '' battyboys''.


Example phrases

* Mi almos lik 'im () – I almost hit him * 'im kyaant biit mi, 'im jus lucky dat 'im won () – He can't beat me, he just got lucky that he won. * Seen – Affirmative particle * – Foolish exhibition, a person who makes a foolish exhibition of him or herself, or an exclamation of surprise. * – Woman * – Boy


Literature and film

A rich body of literature has developed in Jamaican Patois. Notable among early authors and works are Thomas MacDermot's ''All Jamaica Library'' and Claude McKay's '' Songs of Jamaica'' (1909), and, more recently, dub poets
Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His p ...
and
Mikey Smith Michael Smith, usually referred to as Mikey Smith (14 September 1954 – 17 August 1983), was a Jamaican dub poet. Along with Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Mutabaruka, he was one of the best-known dub poets. In 1978, Smith represented Jamaica at ...
. Subsequently, the life-work of
Louise Bennett Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the practice of p ...
or Miss Lou (1919–2006) is particularly notable for her use of the rich colorful patois, despite being shunned by traditional literary groups. "The Jamaican Poetry League excluded her from its meetings, and editors failed to include her in anthologies." Nonetheless, she argued forcefully for the recognition of Jamaican as a full language, with the same pedigree as the dialect from which Standard English had sprung: After the 1960s, the status of Jamaican Patois rose as a number of respected linguistic studies were published, by Frederic Cassidy (1961, 1967), Bailey (1966) and others. Subsequently, it has gradually become mainstream to codemix or write complete pieces in Jamaican Patois; proponents include Kamau Brathwaite, who also analyses the position of Creole poetry in his ''History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry'' (1984). However, Standard English remains the more prestigious literary medium in Jamaican literature. Canadian-Caribbean science-fiction novelist
Nalo Hopkinson Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', '' Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as th ...
often writes in Trinidadian and sometimes Jamaican Patois.
Jean D'Costa Jean Constance D'Costa (born 13 January 1937) is a Jamaican children's novelist, linguist, and professor emeritus. Her novels have been praised for their use of both Jamaican Creole and Standard English. Early life and education Jean Constance ...
penned a series of popular children's novels, including '' Sprat Morrison'' (1972; 1990), '' Escape to Last Man Peak'' (1976), and ''Voice in the Wind'' (1978), which draw liberally from Jamaican Patois for dialogue, while presenting narrative prose in Standard English. Marlon James employs Patois in his novels including ''
A Brief History of Seven Killings ''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published in 2014 by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and ...
'' (2014). In his science fiction novel ''Kaya Abaniah and the Father of the Forest'' (2015), British-Trinidadian author Wayne Gerard Trotman presents dialogue in
Trinidadian Creole Trinidadian Creole is an English-Based creole language commonly spoken throughout the island of Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago. It is distinct from Tobagonian Creole – particularly at the basilectal level – and from other Lesser Antillean ...
, Jamaican Patois, and French while employing Standard English for narrative prose. Jamaican Patois is also presented in some films and other media, for example, the character Tia Dalma's speech from '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'', and a few scenes in ''
Meet Joe Black ''Meet Joe Black'' is a 1998 American romantic fantasy film directed and produced by Martin Brest, and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. The screenplay was written by Bo Goldman, Kevin Wade, Ron Osborn, and Jeff Reno, and ...
'' in which Brad Pitt's character converses with a Jamaican woman ( Lois Kelly Miller). In addition, early Jamaican films like ''
The Harder They Come ''The Harder They Come'' is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world". ...
'' (1972), '' Rockers'' (1978), and many of the films produced by
Palm Pictures Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD-Video format. Palm places an emphasis on such pro ...
in the mid-1990s (e.g. '' Dancehall Queen'' and '' Third World Cop'') have most of their dialogue in Jamaican Patois; some of these films have even been subtitled in English. It was also used in the second season of ''
Marvel's Luke Cage ''Marvel's Luke Cage'' is an American television series created by Cheo Hodari Coker for the streaming service Netflix, based on the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), acknowledging the continuit ...
'' but the accents were described as "awful" by Jamaican Americans.


Bible

In December 2011, it was reported that the Bible was being translated into Jamaican Patois. The Gospel of St Luke has already appeared as '' Jiizas: di Buk We Luuk Rait bout Im''. While the Rev. Courtney Stewart, managing the translation as General Secretary of the West Indies Bible Society, believes this will help elevate the status of Jamaican Patois, others think that such a move would undermine efforts at promoting the use of English. The Patois New Testament was launched in Britain (where the Jamaican diaspora is significant) in October 2012 as " Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment", and with print and audio versions in Jamaica in December 2012. A comparison of the
Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
: ...as it occurs in ''Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment'': : Wi Faada we iina evn, : mek piipl av nof rispek fi yu an yu niem. : Mek di taim kom wen yu ruul iina evri wie. : Mek we yu waahn apm pan ort apm, : jos laik ou a wa yu waahn fi apm iina evn apm : Tide gi wi di fuud we wi niid. : Paadn wi fi aal a di rang we wi du, : siem laik ou wi paadn dem we du wi rang. : An no mek wi fies notn we wi kaaz wi fi sin, : bot protek wi fram di wikid wan. : ...as it occurs in English Standard Version: : Our Father in heaven, : hallowed be Your name. : Your kingdom come, : Your will be done, : on earth, as it is in heaven. : Give us this day our daily bread, : and forgive us our debts, : as we also have forgiven our debtors. : And lead us not into temptation, : but deliver us from evil. The system of spelling used in ''Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment'' is the phonetic Cassidy Writing system adopted by the Jamaica Language Unit of the University of the West Indies, and while most Jamaicans use the informal "Miss Lou" writing system, the Cassidy Writing system is an effort at standardizing Patois in its written form.


See also

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English-based creole languages An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the '' lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the cre ...
*
Jamaican English Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is a variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (or Creole), though not entirely ...
*
Nation language "Nation language" is the term coined by scholar and poet Kamau Brathwaite McArthur, Tom,"Nation language" ''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', 1998. and now commonly preferred to describe the work of writers from the Caribbean and ...
* Rastafarian vocabulary


Notes


References


Citations


General sources

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Further reading

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External links


The Jamaican Language Unit

Jamaican Patois Dictionary

Jamaican Creole Language Course for Peace Corps Volunteers



Sample Jamaican Patois Translations

Jumieka Langwij
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamaican (Language) Jamaican culture Analytic languages English-based pidgins and creoles Languages of Jamaica Languages of the African diaspora Articles containing video clips