Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois, known as Patwa, Jamaican Creole or simply Jamaican, is an English-African Creole language spoken mostly in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora.[2]
| Jamaican Creole | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patois | ||||
| Native to | Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, United States, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Canada | |||
| Native speakers | 3.2 million (2001)[1] | |||
| Language family | English creole
| |||
| Dialects | ||||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | jam | |||
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-am | |||
| ||||
Formation of the language
Jamaican Patois was developed in the 17th century with the arrival of West African slaves. Once they arrived in the island, they had to quickly learn and neutralize the dialectal forms of the English language. The slaves, just like in any region of the Caribbean rather speak their original tongue than learn the proper forms of the European languages of their masters.[3]
Irish influence
Jamaican Creole draws an Irish phonetic sounds in some areas of Jamaica, however, the schools and education in Jamaica are based on the British English in the writing, reading and speech.
African influence
Jamaican Patois has African influences dating back to the 17th century. Its syntax, sounds, phonetics, grammar, and plenty of words show African influence in every aspect.[3]
Chinese and East Indian influence
The Jamaican language has hundreds or thousands of words with origins of the Cantonese and the Indian languages, such as "Ganja" (Mariguana).
Jamaican Patois Media
Female patois speaker saying two sentences
A Jamaican Patois speaker discussing the usage of the language
Vowels of Jamaican Patois. from Harry (2006:128)
References
- ↑ Jamaican Creole at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- ↑ Lars Hinrichs (2006), Codeswitching on the Web: English and Jamaican Creole in E-Mail Communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 DeCamp (1977:29)
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Jamaican Patois edition. |