General Information

Jamaican Creole (JamC), also called Patois or Patwa, is an English-African creole spoken in Jamaica as well as the larger Jamaican expatriate communities. It formed during the 17th century when slaves from West Africa were forced to learn the English dialects of their masters.There are about 3.1 million speakers of JamC, including almost the entire population of Jamaica (2.6 million). Although English is the official language and the language of most writing in Jamaica, the creole has been gaining prestige in the past decades.

Dahlia uses a basilect version of JamC, i.e. a variety of JamC that is remote from Jamaican English (JamE), the official language of Jamaica.

Typological Details

Parameters

Speaker

Play a welcome message spoken by Dahlia T.:

Welcome aal a unu we kom fi yuuz da linguistic websait ya.

Welcome aal a unu we kom fi yuuz da linguistic websait ya.

'wɛlkɒm ʔa:la 'ʊnʊ e 'kʰɒm fɪ ju:z a lɪŋ'gwɪstɪks 'wɛbsaɪtˢ 'ja.

welcome all to you.PL that come for use this linguistics website here.

Mi niem Dahlia an me chat Patois.

Mi niem Dahlia an me chat Patois.

mɪ 'nje:əm 'de:lja an mɪ ʧat 'pʰatɔa.

I.POSS name Dahlia and I.NOM speak Patois.

Morphology and Syntax

di buk

de 'bʊk

DEF book

di buk dem

də bʊk 'dɛm

DEF book PL

di big buk

de 'bɪg bʊk

DEF big book.

di big ool buk

de bɪg 'ɔ:l 'bʊk

DEF big very book

ina di buk

'ɪna de bʊk

in the book

pan di buk

'pʰan də bʊk

on the book

Di man a sliip.

də 'man a 'sli:p

DEF man PROG sleep

Di uman did a sliip.

də 'ʔʊman dɪd a 'sli:p

DEF woman PST PROG sleep

Di man si di uman.

də 'man sɪ dɪ 'ʔʊman

DEF man see DEF woman

... wen di uman si di man.

... wɛn dɪ 'ʔʊman sɪ də 'man

... when DEF woman see DEF man

Di man gi di uman di buk.

də 'man gi dɪ 'ʔʊman de 'bʊk

DEF man give DEF woman DEF book

A Complex Passage

The speaker tells the story 'The Northwind and the Sun'.

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger,

Di  Naat Win an  di  Son did a      kos   bout wich wan a dem chrang-ga

The north wind and the sun PST PROG argue about which one of them strong-CMPR

when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

wen dem si   wan man a      kom  wel rap   op ina wan sitn we  luk lak-a

when they see one man PROG come well cover up in one sth. that look like-a

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off

wan winta kluok. Dem disaid se   di fos wan we  get  di  man fi tek  aaf

one winter cloak. They decide that the first one that get the man to take off

should be considered stronger than the other. The North Wind blew as hard as he could,

ihn kluok a  di  chrang-ga wan. Di Naat Win  den staat fi bluo haad haad

his cloak be the strong-CMPR one. The North wind then start to blow hard hard

but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

bot di  haa-da    ihn bluo  di  tait-a      di  man  rap i    kluok roun  im.

but the hard-CMPR he blow the tight-CMPR the man pull the cloak around him

and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and

Di  Naat Win jos   disaid se  ihn kudn      bada. Den di  Son staat  fi shain an

The north wind just decide that he could.NEG better. Then the sun start to shine and

immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind

di man di   afi      tek  aaf ihn kluok sed   taim.  Wen  im si   dat, di  Naat Win

the man PST have.to take off his cloak same time. When he see that, the north wind

was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

did jos   afi      se   di  Son a  di chrangga   wan.

PST just have.to say the sun be the strong-CMPR one.

The Numbers

1

wan

wʌn

2

tuu

tʰu̞

3

chrii

tɹ̥i

4

four

fɔ:ɻ

5

faiv

faev

6

siks

siks

7

sevn

'se̞vɱ

8

iet

ɪet

9

nain

naen

10

ten

tʰe̞n

In this basilect version, the numbers are spelt in the Jamaican way.

Reference: Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way. The Jamaican Language Unit. 2009. Arawak Publications, p. 13.

Free Passages

Winter de a Inglan 

bot mi de ya ina di son aal die.

An wen mi memba ou unu a shiva ina 

di kuol mi jos sip fi mi kuokonot waata an laaf.

Mi av wan skuul fren a liv ina di konchri stil.

So mi se tu miself, "mi ago luk fi shii".

Mi tek di bos fram toun.

Di bos pak wid piipl.

It so hat mi staat fi swet.

At laas mi riich fi mi stap.

Mi fren a wiet de.

Shi kom miit mi.

In noo taim wi riich di hous.

It big an kuul an nais.

Mi uol fren dem glad fi si mi.

Monophthongs

i

ɛ

a

ɔ

u

i:

ɑ:

u:

Diphthongs

e

ae

u

ɔu

ɔ

uɔ

e

ie

Consonants

Videos

Writing System

In Jamaican, letters and the sounds they represent have a 1-to-1 correspondence, i.e. every letter represents one sound and every sound is only represented by only one letter, or by a letter combination (e.g. "ng"). Thus, words are spelt as they are pronounced: PDE "cough" = JamC "kaaf" /ka:f/.

For this reason, the JamC orthography contains vowel combinations not found in the PDE alphabet, e.g., "aa", "ai", "ie", "ii", etc.

Note that the following letters do not exist in the JamC alphabet: "c" (on its own), "q", and "x". Furthermore, there are no clusters like "ch", "hn", "ng", "sh", and "zh".

Reference: Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way. The Jamaican Language Unit. 2009. Arawak Publications, p. 13.

Contributors

Developmental Aspects of this VLC Language Index Entry:

• Native Language Assistance: Dahlia Thompson, Caribbean Language Unit, UWI Kingston, Jamaica
• Auditory Judgements:
  • Jürgen Handke (VLC Project Manager)
• Phonetic Transcription:
  • Jürgen Handke (VLC Project Manager)
• Speaker: Dahlia Thompson, Kingston, Jamaica
• recorded in March 2010 (Caribbean Language Unit, UWI Kingston, Jamaica)
• Literature:
  • Haspelmath et al. 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (parameters, location)
  • www.wikipedia.org (general information)