People are haters when it comes to creating more resources for the masses to speak Jamaican. The good people of Jamaica are trying to make it happen…translate the Bible into Jamaican Patois, but like Buju Banton says, positive things always generate controversy. People in and outside of Jamaica are questioning the worthiness of the translation project. The project has been described as a waste of time, a waste of money and step in the wrong direction as far as the education system is concerned. Click here to read some of the letters sent to the Jamaica Gleaner about the Patois Translation project.
I hope that the project continues. Patois is truly something Jamaican and the world is ready to learn and hear the language. People make the argument that Patois is just a dialect, but I am sure English and many other languages were just dialects at one point. Sure, maybe Jamaican Patois does not have a ton of economic value, but does Swahili? Probably not! Yet, there are books already translated into Swahili and nobody is complaining at this point. From an educational standpoint I think it is important that Jamaicans speak English well, but ignoring Patois is ignoring the culture and history of the island. In addition, there are many multilingual societies that never really are concerned with the fact that some people speak one language stronger than the other. Its exciting to know that Jamaican youth will grow up speaking two languages and ultimately, will have two thought processes when speaking. Bottom line, the more languages you speak…the better for your thinking process and ability to learn other languages.
So…I think Jamaica needs to get started on the darn thing and bring “More Fiyah”! Buju is right, positive things always generate controversy.
Translating the Bible in Jamaican will be uplifting for the Jamaicans and for Jamaica as a sovereign nation. It means less cultural domination by its former colonial power. Speaking,reading and writing in their mother tongue will enhance their ego and enable them to push their intellectual horizon higher.
Imagine that million of people are attending churches from cradle to grave. Some spent a substantial amount of their time trying to read, understand a Bible written in a foreign language.
This make believe game of reading and comprehend the essence of what is said in the Bible has been a source of their secret personal frustration,an assault on their intelligence and a futile adventure at best;nevertheless, it is happening in Jamaica,Haiti and throughout the third world countries. To compound the problem, the majority of the clergy are citizen from where that particular language is originated. They usually look different and exude their sense of superiority.
The vast majorities of the people in third world countries have normal intelligence and are highly functional except when they have to do that make believe ritual.
The solution to this vexing hurdle is deceptively simple. Start with the people where they are not where you want them to be. Should the demonstrate proficiency in the foreign language before reading the Bible? The answer is a resounding No. Have them read the Bible in they language the understand best.
We learn in relationship to what we already know. Most linguists agreed that people learn faster if taught in the mother tongue language.
To prevent the vast majority of a nation from learning and developing their intellectual potentials in their mother tongue is an act of cultural domination and cultural terrorism.
Language is a dynamic process that reflects the historical,material, abstract conditions and aspiration of a people. Each language is unique . We use language to convey meaning,abstraction,intention and to manipulate.
There is parity among languages.There is no superior or inferior language. Each language is capable of describing the world and beyond. Each language has its own genius.
In a normal environment,by the age of four most children can speak. Around seven years,most are able to think,clearly,read and write .The most grammatical rules of a language are learnt by the native speaker in infancy without explicit instruction.
Grammar is the precise description of a language; it is not its prescription. A linguist is interested in how the people speaks a language not what he thinks ought to be said. Therefore,people speaks a language before academician formulates the rules of that particular language.
Creoles are relatively young languages. There are sevral creole languages spoken around the world. Their syntax reflect their African origins.Currently most of those languages are available in phonological and phonetic transcription rather than orthographies because of a lack of lexical standardization. Remember it took several hundred years to standardized the English language.
A language could change its entire vocabulary and still retains its grammar,syntax,phonology and morphology.
Orthography will follow later. Orthography usually has to integrate more information than just the representation of of pronunciation. It indicates the value of phonetically identical words and serves as a reminder on grammatical relations.
Semantics deal with the meaning of words in a language. Sometime within the same language but different communities the meaning might change.For example, the following English words might have different meaning for a Jamaican: Agony, alias, bad, bamby, biscuit, box, herb, red, rat, salt, science, wood to name a fews.
Translation from one language to another is never exact. In human language translation, you translated ideas not words; that is why most computer translation usually failed miserably. Moreover,translation is a political process since it not neutral. It is connected to the issue of power and the legitimacy of the translator.
To conclude: Speaking in in your mother tongue is the sine qua non condition to understand other languages. It is where you stand to move the world and beyond. To quotes Archimedes-340 AD “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth”