![]() ![]() It uses mostly English words, but the grammar,construction and the pronunciation are often different from those used in standard English. If I were to place Jamaican English on the continuum between Jamaican patois and standard English, it would probably be closer to the standard English side. ![]() Well, it's not Standard English, which is what I try to use when I write, for the most part. I've been told by my daughter that I better qualify what I mean by Jamaican English, as there are definitions which are used by scholars, and she doesn't want her mother looking ignorant all over the internet. Now that I've said that, I'm now beginning to think that maybe patois is the default. But when we are excited, upset or agitated, we rely more on Jamaican patios to express ourselves. It's what we use between family members under normal circumstances. (2018, February 22).I think of Jamaican English as the default setting in my household. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36(01),125-131. It is the writers’ intention that this website will further enlighten you about the History of Jamaican Creole, the linguistic features of the language, social context in which it is used, literature, and music.īelcher-Timme, P. The social attitudes towards the language and its speakers vary and are intertwined. Jamaican Creole is not only a spoken language, but it is also used in various forms of media such as in music, novels, and poetry by professional Jamaican writers, in Jamaican newspapers and magazine articles, in movies, and also in a translation of the New Testament of the King James Version of the Bible which was done by The Bible Society of the West Indies. ![]() Jamaican Creole thereby began as a pidgin language which came about because of contact between multiple languages, and later it became a creole when the descendants of these slaves became native speakers of the language. They found it difficult to communicate with each other and they had no common language, so over time this resulted in the appropriation of various features of English which they combined with some features of their various African languages. These slaves were from various tribes and spoke various African languages, and so English was difficult for them to assimilate especially under the conditions in which they were forced to assimilate it. After Jamaica was colonized by the British in 1655, the African slaves who were forcibly taken to the island to work on the sugar plantations there were also forced to assimilate the English that their masters spoke to them. What makes the language a creole in particular is how it came to be, which was through linguistic imperialism. The language is sometimes described as “broken English” or a “dialect” by some, and a “variant of English” by others. In other words, Jamaican Creole is an English-lexified creole language which means that many aspects of this language’s vocabulary, syntax, and phonology are from its major lexifier English. Harry (2006) in the article entitled “Jamaican Creole,” “Jamaican Creole is one of the major Atlantic English-lexifi creoles spoken in the Caribbean” (p. The island’s rich culture, beautiful people, beaches, mountains, and rainforests, all make her a popular tourist destination and has gained her prominence in the global community but her past which is marred by the African slave trade and the plantation system, not only echoes in her cuisine, fashion, and other cultural traditions, but most of all in Jamaican Creole.Īccording to Otelemate G. ![]() Jamaica contains an estimated 2.9 million inhabitants (“The World Factbook,” 2018) and most speak Jamaican Creole however, the country’s official language is Standard Jamaican English and because of this, a creole continuum exists in the utterances of Jamaican natives which is influenced by their various socio-economic backgrounds. Jamaican Creole is also called Patwa or Patois and is the native language of Jamaica which is an island surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. Jamaican Creole is a prime example of such a language which often marks the utterances of many Jamaicans with a distinct accent, both in their native communities, and in diasporic communities such as in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada. In many situations, one can assume to a certain extent the ethnicity of someone simply by the accent which marks the speaker’s utterances which usually results from their native language. One aspect of a country’s cultural heritage which holds a certain degree of precedence over all the others is the language spoken by the natives of that country. ![]()
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