Jamaican Maroon language, Maroon Spirit language, Kromanti, Jamaican Maroon Creole or Deep patwa is a

ritual language A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Some religions, or part ...

and formerly mother tongue of

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...

. It is an

English-based creole 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 cr ...

with a strong

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan languages, a language group within the wider Central Tano languages *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan *Central Tano language ...

component, specifically from the

Asante dialect Asante, also known as Ashanti, Ashante, or Asante Twi, is one of the principal dialects of the Akan language. It is one of the three literary dialects of Akan, the others being Akuapem dialect, Akuapem and Fante language, Fante. There are over 3. ...

of modern day

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. It is distinct from usual

Jamaican Creole Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican ...

, being similar to the creoles of Sierra Leone ( Krio) and

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

such as

Sranan Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people (approximately 80% of the popula ...

and Ndyuka. It is also more purely

than regular

Patois ''Patois'' (, 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 or sl ...

, with little contribution from other African languages. Today, the Maroon Spirit language is used by

and Surinamese Maroons (largely

Coromantee Coromantee, Coromantins, Coromanti or Kormantine (derived from the name of the Ghanaian slave fort Fort Amsterdam, Ghana, Fort Kormantine in the Ghanaian town of Kormantse, Central Ghana) is an English-language term for Atlantic slave trade, en ...

s). Another distinct ritual language (also called Kromanti) consisting mostly of words and phrases from Akan languages, is also used by Jamaican Maroons in certain rituals including some involving

possession Possession may refer to: Law *Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance *Drug possession, a crime *Ownership *Pe ...

by ancestral spirits during Kromanti ceremonies or when addressing those who are possessed and sometimes used as a kind of code. The term "Kromanti" is used by participants in such ceremonies to refer to an African language spoken by ancestors in the distant past, prior to the creolization of Jamaican Maroon Creole. This term is used to refer to a language which is "clearly not a form of Jamaican Creole and displays very little English content" (Bilby 1983: 38). While Kromanti is not a functioning language, those possessed by ancestral spirits are attributed the ability to speak it. More remote ancestors are compared with more recent ancestors on a gradient, such that increasing strength and ability in the use of the non-creolized Kromanti are attributed to increasingly remote ancestors (as opposed to the Jamaican Maroon Creole used to address these ancestors). The language was brought along by the maroon population to

Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) Cudjoe's Town was located in the mountains in the southern extremities of the parish of St James, close to the border of Westmoreland, Jamaica. In 1690, a large number of Akan freedom fighters already living in the mountains launched an assault ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

in 1796, where they were sent in exile. They eventually traveled to

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

in 1800. Their creole language highly influenced the local creole language that evolved into present day Krio.

Some phonological characteristics of Jamaican Maroon Creole

Bilby discusses several phonological distinctions between Jamaican Creole and Jamaican Maroon Creole. Vowel epithesis: Some words in the Maroon Creole have a vowel in the final syllable, compared to Jamaican Creole. Some examples are: * "to fight" * "forest" * "mouth" Liquids: Many words that have a lateral liquid /l/ in Jamaican Creole have a trill /r/ in Maroon Creole. Some examples are: * "pleased" * "black" * "belly" /ai/ to /e/: There are several instances where the "deep creole" uses /e/ while the "normal creole" uses /ai/.

References

* English-based pidgins and creoles Jamaican Maroons Languages of Jamaica Ritual languages Extinct languages of North America Languages of the African diaspora Spirit possession {{pidgincreole-lang-stub

Some phonological characteristics of Jamaican Maroon Creole

See also

References