Jamaican Slang EditorialTHE Blog for Jamaican Slang, Patois, Reggae, Rastafari, Real T’ing dem and Jamaica

More and more people are learning to speak Jamaican  Patois. People  in Portugal, Sweden, Norway,  England, USA and many more countries are  speaking  Jamaican or learning to speak Jamaican. So the question has to be asked why people are continuing to say that Jamaican Patois is not a langauge?  Well,  dey dun  noh! In the fifteen points below Karl Folkes has summarized the issues on why Jamaican Patois is a language. As a Jamaican educator and linguist Folkes worked diligently to have Jamaican Patois fully and officially recognized by the Jamaican Government. Check the reasons out and believe!!!

Fifteen points on “why Jamaican Patois is a language”:

1. Creole languages are in effect the modern languages of the world; and have evolved and developed with varying degrees of automaticity over the last 400 years.

2. There are more than 200 attested Creole languages in the world and represented in all continents of the globe.

3. Creole languages are popularly described as evolving from an earlier ‘Pidgin’, or putatively “less fully-developed form”. However, this is merely a linguistic theory framed within a Western European ideological worldview.

4. The majority of Creole languages (again, the term ‘Creole’ is of European origin, and therefore troublesome for several reasons) have their origins in African languages. Thus, while their vocabulary or lexicon may be largely European-based (with lexical contributions from the hypothesized ’superstrate’ languages), their syntax or grammar is distinctly non-European, and certainly more closely African (a continent historically described as “the dark continent” and therefore genetically contributing hypothesized ’substrate’ languages).

5. The Creole languages of the Caribbean Basin are essentially syntactically more alike than they are different in their underlying or deep structure, despite their surface phonological, morphological, and lexical differences.

6. Creole languages all adhere to linguistic standards. This means it is linguistically correct to speak of Standard English, as well as Standard Jamaican, Standard Haitian, Standard Sranan Tongo, etc., with these latter languages being separate languages and not dialects of English or Dutch.

7. These standards adhere to the rules of their own grammar, which makes communication reliable, uniform, and possible among speakers of the various Creole languages.

8. Creole is not the name of a language, but the family name of several distinct languages which include Jamaican, Haitian, Garifuna, Sranan Tongo — and, yes, Afrikaans (in South Africa) and Yiddish (in Israel and other countries around the world).

9. All human languages belong to language families: as examples English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish (to Germanic); Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese (to Latinate or Romance); Chinese, Korean, Japanese (to Sino-Sinnitic), etc. Languages which belong to the same language families can be expected to share similar phonological, lexical, morphological, and syntactic features; but they are different enough to be recognized as different languages, and not dialects of one another.

10. Languages, in general, are named after the countries that produced them natively: English(England); German (Germany); French(France); Spanish(Spain); Russian (Russia). Occasionally languages bear the name of ethnic or cultural affiliations. Thsis logically suggests that the language of Jamaica should more properly be called “Jamaican” — certainly not “Patwa” or “Patois” which is a derisive term that was spawned by Europeans within a a colonial imperialistic paradigm to describe and to maintain relations of inequity between ’slave’ and ‘master’. These terms should no longer be used, certainly not in Independent Jamaica.

11. All languages, including Jamaican, started out in spoken form only. That is a natural course of linguistic development. The written forms came afterwards. More importantly, all spoken languages can — without exception– be represented uniformly in writing.

12. When a language is represented uniformly in writing (i.e., when there is uniformity in phonemic-graphemic correspondence, presdtige is given to the language around the world and literacy development of the speakers of that language is encouraged in the native language.

13. Most Jamaicans are bilingual to varying degrees in Jamaican and English. Of course, some Jamaicans are monolingual Jamaican, with a small percentage monolingual English (perhaps the British, Americans, or Canadians in Jamaica).

14. “Jamaican” is the native language of most of its speakers for whom English is indeed a second language.

15. It is psychologically uplifting and culturally empowering to be bilingual and biliterate!

To get your hands on the definitive book for learning Jamaican Patois, check out www.jamaican-slang.com

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.

I know that alot of people think that all reggae sounds the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, there are definitely some similarities among all of the types of reggae, but there are really two dominant forms of reggae that come out of Jamaica, Ragga aka Dancehall Reggae and Roots Reggae. So what are the differences?

To begin with, Ragga which I will refer to as Dancehall is largely played with digital instruments. Most of the beats which are called Riddims are made digitally. Dancehall has been the most commercially successful Jamaican music over the years. Many Dancehall artists have experienced cross over success with mainstream music. Artists like Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Vybz Kartel, Bounty Killa, Elephant Man and many more are all examples of dancehall artists with some experiencing worldwide success. In addition, to artists known strictly for dancehall, some Roots artists also record dancehall tracks. Sizzla, Buju Banton and Capelton are roots artists who also appear on dancehall tracks. Dancehall is unique in that it draws on all aspects of Jamaican culture and is often the sound where authentic Jamaican Patois can be heard (to hear some authentic Patois on Dancehall Tracks, check out the JA Mixes). The subject matter in the songs ranges from politics in Jamaica, sex, women, violence, Jamaica or a new dance. Dancehall gets its name from the event or place where people go to hear ragga tracks and as the word implies, people dance! Many of the most popular dancehall tracks have dedicated dances with choreography. Recently, one of the most popular was dances was Pon di River, also a song by Elephant Man. In addition, to Pon di River, there is also a dance for Signal de Plane (click here to see the steps for Signal de Plane!) Dancehall tracks come out at a frenzying pace and some are classics while others leave much to be desired.

Roots reggae is the largely rasta influenced form of reggae. Many roots tracks are recorded with live instruments, although many are also digital. As mentioned before, some of the most well known roots artists who venture into the dancehall world are Sizzla, Buju Banton and Capelton. Other popular artists who focus almost exclusively on roots include Morgan Heritage, Ritchie Spice, Jah Mason, Anthony B, Luciano and many more. One thing to know is that many of these artists are also rastas. Sizzla, Capelton and Anthony are all Bobo Ashanti, a very unique and obscure sect of the Rastafarian faith. Most roots songs address issues such as Rastafari, Ganja, Jah, H.I.M (His Imperial Majesty), Africa, Jamaica and other realities that face the Jamaican people. As far as learning to speak Jamaican, Roots is important for understanding the roots, reality and culture, but is much more likely to have English lyrics. From a cultural perspective, Roots songs often have Nayabinghi sounds and other instruments of the Rastafari faith.

So is one genre better than the other? Absolutely not. I go in and out of phases. Sometimes, I want to listen to roots to relax and other times I want to listen to dancehall to get energized like Elephant Man. Dancehall is great to learn to speak Jamaican and Roots really gives you insight into the culture of Jamaica and Rastafari!

I am excited about people learning to speak Jamaican Patois. The thing about Patois is that it is a fun and fast language. Although, learning words is helpful phrases take the learning process to the next level. So here are the 5 Key Phrases to Help You Speak Jamaican:

1) Wha gwaan my yoot? = What’s going on my friend (buddy)?

2) Mi a go foreign = I am going out of the country (abroad).

3) Mi nuh know = I don’t know.

4) We run tings, tings nuh run we = We are in control or We run things and things do not run us.

5) Mi gwaan chat wid di gyal dem = I am going to talk to the girls.

I hope these “likkle” helpful points allow you to speak Jamaican like a Jamaican!

Soon Come

To learn more about Jamaican Patois and learn how to Speak Jamaican, visit www.jamaican-slang.com

Many people question if they speak Jamaican Patois, are they really speaking a language. The answer is yes - Yea Mon! Wikipedia defines a spoken language as: A spoken language is a human natural language in which the words are uttered through the mouth. I would say that Jamaican Patois definitely meets the requirement of being a language.  So, why do so many people  say that  Jamaican Patois is not a language?

I think it has to do with colonization, legacy and class. From a colonization standpoint, Jamaicans continue to have a very close connection to Great Britain, the island’s major colonizer. Many Jamaicans live in Great Britain and have had a major influence on British culture, but Great Britain and the Queen of England have a lasting legacy as far as Jamaica is concerned. The English language, driving cars with the steering wheel on the right hand side, having a Prime Minister, the importance of a yard and many other things are a legacy of the British. In the past, the person that spoke proper English or the Queen’s English was most likely well educated and from a higher class. As a result, those that spoke Patois were looked down upon because they were not speaking the colonizer’s language. Despite the historically legacy of colonization, I think times have changed and Patois is vital to Jamaica’s culture, history and place in the world.

You see, Jamaican Patois is based on English and Spanish, but it is also based on African languages as well and before I forget there is also the American Arawak influence. Although, it would be unfair to discount the role of the English language, Jamaican Patois is heavily influenced by Spanish and even more by African languages. Let me see if I can shed some light on this.

Think back to your Spanish Classes when you had to learn the Alphabet and how to count in Spanish. Well, that was a good lesson to begin to speak Jamaican because some of the pronunciation is identical. For example, in Spanish when you say the word twenty or Veinte, the pronunciation in many places begins with a B sound as though the word were “Beinte”. The same thing exists in Patois. For example, you might hear the word “vex” pronounced like ” bex”. The other area where you can hear Spanish in Patois is the vowel pronunciation or sounds. Most vowels in Jamaican Patois have a similar or identical pronunciation to Spanish. Just listen to some the way Jamaicans say the word “Apple” and then listen to the way a Spanish speaker says “Apple”. There is a striking similarity between the two languages. From a cultural and geographic standpoint, its clear to see the influence of the Spanish on Jamaica…Spanish Town and Ocho Rios are both major cities on the island and each has its own history and legacy.

Just in case you have not been to Jamaica, its a country largely populated by African descendants. There are tons of mixes on the island, but the large majority of the island’s population can trace some ancestry back to Africa. The African influence can be heard all throughout the language. In many West African languages, the third person plural pronoun is used after the noun and this is the case in Jamaican Patois. For example, if you listen to the famous Beenie Man song “Girls dem Sugar” you hear him always say “Beenie Man a gyal dem suga, di gyal dem need…”. This is a clear case of this Africanism being present in Jamaican Patois, but there are many more. In addition to Patois grammar, Patois vocabulary also contains elements from Africa. For example, Duppy is a ghost in Patois, but the word also exist in the Bantu language of West Africa. Another example of an Africanism would be the phrase “wha mek” which really means why. This is said to originate from modern day Nigeria.

Jamaican Patois is certainly a language and it is vital to the historic and cultural identity of Jamaica. The language explains alot about the culture and history of Jamaica. For the children of Jamaicans living in New York or London, Patois and Reggae music might be one of the few mass forms of communication that can preserve their parent’s heritage.

To learn more about Jamaican Culture and Patois, check out my book: The Rastaman Vibration. Stay turned for more lessons and background on Jamaican Patois and Jamaican Culture. In the mean time, check out www.jamaican-slang.com

Soon Come