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Jamaican English

January 15, 2023

Not to be confused with Jamaican Patois.

Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is a variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country.[1] A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (or Creole), though not entirely a sharp distinction so much as a gradual continuum between two extremes.[2] Jamaican English tends to follow British English spelling conventions.[3]

Sociolinguistics

Jamaican Standard English is a type of International Standard English (English language in England). There are several language varieties that have significantly impacted this dialect of English. English was introduced into Jamaica in 1655,[4] because of the colonisation by Britain. British English was spread through post-primary education, and through British teachers that immigrated to Jamaica.[4] Standard English in Jamaica conflated with the British Standard.[5] Individuals who speak the standard variety are often considered to be of a higher social class.[4] Also, American English has contributed to the Jamaican English dialect. These impacts can be traced to the development of stronger social and economic ties with the United States, the popularity of U.S. cultural offerings, including film, music, and televised dramas and comedies and tourism.[6] Jamaican Patois is another source of influence on Jamaican English.[5] Many rural homes are mono lingually Patois.

Grammar

Despite Jamaican Standard English being conflated with the British Standard Dialect, there are great similarities between grammar, idiom, and vocabulary.[5]

Phonology

This section contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Features of the Jamaican Standard English pronunciation, include the characteristic pronunciation of the /aʊ/ diphthong in words like MOUTH, which is often more closed and rounded [ɵʊ] than in Received Pronunciation or General American; the pronunciation of the STRUT vowel /ʌ/ to [ɵ~o] (again, more closed and rounded than the British Received Pronunciation or General American varieties); and the very unusual feature of "variable semi-rhoticity".[7]

Non-rhoticity (the pronunciation of "r" nowhere except before vowels) is highly variable in Jamaican English and can depend upon the phonemic and even social context.[8] Jamaican English accents are: non-rhotic regarding words of the LETTER lexical set (at the ends of unstressed syllables); rhotic (i.e., fully preserving the "r" sound) regarding words of the NEAR and FORCE sets; high to middling in degrees of rhoticity regarding the SQUARE, NURSE, and CURE sets; and low regarding rhoticity with most other word sets.[9][10] When "r" is followed by a consonant, non-rhoticity is more likely than when "r" is not followed by a consonant.[11] However, overall more rhoticity is positively correlated with higher levels of education. This has been attributed to the Jamaican education system normalising and promoting a rhotic variety of English.[12] Thus, the overall degree of rhoticity in educated Jamaican English remains very low, with rhoticity occurring 21.7% of the time.[13]

Merger of the diphthongs in "fair" and "fear" takes place both in Jamaican Standard English and Jamaican Patois, resulting in those two words (and many others, like "bear" and "beer") often becoming homophones: the sound being [eːɹ], though often [iɛɹ] (something like "ee-air"; thus "bear/beer" as "bee-air").[14]

The short "a" sound (TRAP, man, hat, etc.) is very open [a], similar to its Irish versions, while BATH, PALM, and START all use this same sound too, but lengthened,[15] and perhaps slightly backed;[16] this distinction can maintain a London-like TRAP–BATH split. Both LOT/CLOTH and THOUGHT use a rounded [ɔ], though a cot-caught merger is theoretically avoided by the latter set of words being more lengthened;[15] however, in reality, a full merger (of LOT/CLOTH/THOUGHT) is reportedly increasing in informal contexts.[17] For Jamaican Patois speakers, the merged vowel is much lower. GOAT and FACE vowels in the standard educated dialect are long monophthongs: respectively [oː] and [eː].[15] The unstressed schwa phoneme (COMMA) appears to be normally produced in the area of [a~ɐ].[18]

Before the low central vowel [a], the velars [k] and [ɡ] can be realized with palatalisation, so that cat can be pronounced [khat ~ kjat] and card as [kha:d ~ kja:d]); while [ɡ] and [ɡj] coexist, as in gap [ɡap ~ ɡjap] or guard [ɡa:(ɹ)d ~ ɡja:(ɹ)d]. These variations are distinct phonemes in Jamaican Patois before [a]: [ɡja:dn̩] is garden while [ɡa:dn̩] is Gordon; [kja:f] is calf while [ka:f] is cough. They are not distinct phonemes in Jamaica English because these word pairs are distinguished by the vowel ([a] vs [ɔ]) instead. However, this fact hasn't stopped educated speakers from incorporating [kj] in their English at least before unlengthened "a". Hoewever, vowel length can be a relevant factor, since it is possible to hear forms like [kjat] for cat, [kjaɹɪ] for carry, [kjaɹaktʌ] for character, and [kjaɹɪbiǝn] for Caribbean, but affluent or aspiring middle-class speakers tend to avoid [kja:ɹ] for car due to its longer vowel.[19][20]

Presumably less-educated Jamaican Patois speakers may speak English with several other notable features, including a TRAP–LOT merger (e.g. with rat and rot homophones) to [ɔ] and a PRIZE–CHOICE merger (e.g. with line and loin homophones) to [ɔi].[21] Th-stopping is also common.

One of the most salient sounds of Caribbean English to speakers of outside English dialects is its unique rhythm and intonation. Linguists debate whether this system centres mostly on stress, tone, or a mixture in which the two interact. Sometimes, Jamaican English is perceived as maintaining less of a contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables, in other words, making all syllables sound relatively-equally stressed: thus kitchen not /ˈkɪtʃɪn/ so much as /kɪtʃɪn/ (perhaps even perceived by a non-Caribbean as having second-syllable stress: /kɪˈtʃɪn/). In Jamaican English, normally reduced English vowels are sometimes not reduced, and other times are hyper-reduced, so that token is not *[ˈtuokn̩] but [ˈtuoken], yet cement can be as reduced as [sment]; the exact nuances of the rules at play here are also highly debated.[22]

Language use: Jamaican Standard English versus Patois

Jamaican Standard English and Jamaican Patois exist together in a post-creole speech continuum. Jamaican (Creole/Patois) is used by most people for everyday, informal situations - it is the language most Jamaicans use at home and are most familiar with, as well as the language of most local popular music. Jamaican Patois has begun to be used on the radio as well as the news.[23] Standard English, on the other hand, is the language of education, high culture, government, the media and official/formal communications. It is also the native language of a small minority of Jamaicans (typically upper-class and upper/traditional middle-class). Most Creole-dominant speakers have a fair command of English and Standard English, through schooling and exposure to official culture and mass media; their receptive skills (understanding of Standard English) are typically much better than their productive skills (their own intended Standard English statements often show signs of Jamaican Creole interference).

Most writing in Jamaica is done in English (including private notes and correspondence). Jamaican Patois has a standardised orthography as well,[24] but has only recently been taught in some schools, so the majority of Jamaicans can read and write Standard English only, and have trouble deciphering written Patois (in which the writer tries to reflect characteristic structures and pronunciations to differing degrees, without compromising readability). Written Patois appears mostly in literature, especially in folkloristic "dialect poems"; in humoristic newspaper columns; and most recently, on internet chat sites frequented by younger Jamaicans, who seem to have a more positive attitude toward their own language use than their parents.[25]

While, for the sake of simplicity, it is customary[by whom?] to describe Jamaican speech in terms of Standard English versus Jamaican Creole, a clear-cut dichotomy does not describe the actual language use of most Jamaicans.[citation needed] Between the two extremes—"broad Patois" on one end of the spectrum, and "perfect" Standard English on the other—there are various in-between varieties. This situation typically results when a Creole language is in constant contact with Standardised English (superstrate or lexifier language) and is called a creole speech continuum. The least prestigious (most Creole) variety is called the basilect; Standard English (or high prestige) variety, the acrolect; and in-between versions are known as mesolects.

Consider, for example, the following forms:

  • "im/(h)ihn de/da/a wok úoba désò" (basilect)
  • "im workin ova deso" (low mesolect)
  • "(H)e (h)is workin' over dere" (high mesolect)
  • "He is working over there." (acrolect)

(As noted above, the "r" in "over" is not pronounced in any variety, but the one in "dere" or "there" is.)

Jamaicans choose from the varieties available to them according to the situation. A Creole-dominant speaker will choose a higher variety for formal occasions like official business or a wedding speech, and a lower one for relating to friends; a Standard English-dominant speaker is likely to employ a lower variety when shopping at the market than at their workplace. Code-switching can also be metacommunicative (as when a Standard-dominant speaker switches to a more heavily basilect-influenced variety in an attempt at humor or to express solidarity).

See also

References

  1. ^ "Parish Profiles". Jamaica Information Service. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. ^ Peter L. Patrick (1999). Urban Jamaican Creole: Variation in the Mesolect. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 90-272-4875-3.
  3. ^ Sand, A. (1999). Linguistic variation in Jamaica: A corpus-based study of radio and newspaper usage. Tübingen: G. Narr. ISBN 978-3-8233-4943-3.
  4. ^ a b c Justus, Joyce Bennett (January 1978). "Language and National Integration: The Jamaican Case". Ethnology. 17 (1): 39–51. doi:10.2307/3773278. JSTOR 3773278.
  5. ^ a b c Mair, Christian (1 June 2002). "Creolisms in an emerging standard: Written English in Jamaica". English World-Wide. 23: 31–58. doi:10.1075/eww.23.1.03mai.
  6. ^ Rosenfelder, Ingrid (2009). "Sociophonetic variation in educated Jamaican English: An analysis of the spoken component of ICE-Jamaica" (PDF). PhD dissertation, University of Freiburg.
  7. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, p. 81.
  8. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, p. 95.
  9. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, p. 89.
  10. ^ Wells, J C (1982). Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. p. 577. ISBN 0-521-28541-0.
  11. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, pp. 93, 176.
  12. ^ Irvine-Sobers, G. Alison (2018). "The acrolect in Jamaica: The architecture of phonological variation" (Studies in Caribbean Languages 1). Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 53
  13. ^ Rosenfelder, Ingrid (2009). "Rhoticity in Educated Jamaican English: An analysis of the spoken component of ICE-Jamaica." p. 68.
  14. ^ Devonish & Harry (2004:463)
  15. ^ a b c Devonish & Harry (2004:460)
  16. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, p. 146.
  17. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, pp. 145, 147.
  18. ^ Rosenfelder, 2009, pp. 139-140.
  19. ^ Irving-Sobers, G. Alison, 2018, pp. 45-46.
  20. ^ Irving-Sober, G. Alison (1994). "Dialect Variation in Jamaican English: A Study of the Phonology of Social Group Marking". English World-Wide, Volume 15(1). p. 69.
  21. ^ Devonish & Harry (2004:465)
  22. ^ Devonish & Harry (2004:462, 468)
  23. ^ Bryan, Beverley (2004). "Jamaican Creole: in the process of becoming". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 27 (4): 641–659. doi:10.1080/01491987042000216753. S2CID 145631532.
  24. ^ Dynamics of orthographic standardisation in Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin, Dagmar Deuber and Lars Hinrichs, World Englishes 26, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 22–47, doi:10.1111/j.1467-971X.2007.00486.x.
  25. ^ Lars Hinrichs (2006), Codeswitching on the Web: English and Jamaican Patois in E-Mail Communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
  • Devonish, Hubert; Harry, Otelemate G. (2004), "Jamaican Creole and Jamaican English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 964–984, ISBN 3-11-017532-0

January 15, 2023
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Not to be confused with Jamaican Patois This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Jamaican English news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2007 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article is written like a personal reflection personal essay or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style December 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed December 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message Jamaican English including Jamaican Standard English is a variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country 1 A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois or Creole though not entirely a sharp distinction so much as a gradual continuum between two extremes 2 Jamaican English tends to follow British English spelling conventions 3 Contents 1 Sociolinguistics 2 Grammar 3 Phonology 4 Language use Jamaican Standard English versus Patois 5 See also 6 ReferencesSociolinguistics EditJamaican Standard English is a type of International Standard English English language in England There are several language varieties that have significantly impacted this dialect of English English was introduced into Jamaica in 1655 4 because of the colonisation by Britain British English was spread through post primary education and through British teachers that immigrated to Jamaica 4 Standard English in Jamaica conflated with the British Standard 5 Individuals who speak the standard variety are often considered to be of a higher social class 4 Also American English has contributed to the Jamaican English dialect These impacts can be traced to the development of stronger social and economic ties with the United States the popularity of U S cultural offerings including film music and televised dramas and comedies and tourism 6 Jamaican Patois is another source of influence on Jamaican English 5 Many rural homes are mono lingually Patois Grammar EditDespite Jamaican Standard English being conflated with the British Standard Dialect there are great similarities between grammar idiom and vocabulary 5 Phonology EditThis section contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters Features of the Jamaican Standard English pronunciation include the characteristic pronunciation of the aʊ diphthong in words like MOUTH which is often more closed and rounded ɵʊ than in Received Pronunciation or General American the pronunciation of the STRUT vowel ʌ to ɵ o again more closed and rounded than the British Received Pronunciation or General American varieties and the very unusual feature of variable semi rhoticity 7 Non rhoticity the pronunciation of r nowhere except before vowels is highly variable in Jamaican English and can depend upon the phonemic and even social context 8 Jamaican English accents are non rhotic regarding words of the LETTER lexical set at the ends of unstressed syllables rhotic i e fully preserving the r sound regarding words of the NEAR and FORCE sets high to middling in degrees of rhoticity regarding the SQUARE NURSE and CURE sets and low regarding rhoticity with most other word sets 9 10 When r is followed by a consonant non rhoticity is more likely than when r is not followed by a consonant 11 However overall more rhoticity is positively correlated with higher levels of education This has been attributed to the Jamaican education system normalising and promoting a rhotic variety of English 12 Thus the overall degree of rhoticity in educated Jamaican English remains very low with rhoticity occurring 21 7 of the time 13 Merger of the diphthongs in fair and fear takes place both in Jamaican Standard English and Jamaican Patois resulting in those two words and many others like bear and beer often becoming homophones the sound being eːɹ though often iɛɹ something like ee air thus bear beer as bee air 14 The short a sound TRAP man hat etc is very open a similar to its Irish versions while BATH PALM and START all use this same sound too but lengthened 15 and perhaps slightly backed 16 this distinction can maintain a London like TRAP BATH split Both LOT CLOTH and THOUGHT use a rounded ɔ though a cot caught merger is theoretically avoided by the latter set of words being more lengthened 15 however in reality a full merger of LOT CLOTH THOUGHT is reportedly increasing in informal contexts 17 For Jamaican Patois speakers the merged vowel is much lower GOAT and FACE vowels in the standard educated dialect are long monophthongs respectively oː and eː 15 The unstressed schwa phoneme COMMA appears to be normally produced in the area of a ɐ 18 Before the low central vowel a the velars k and ɡ can be realized with palatalisation so that cat can be pronounced khat kjat and card as kha d kja d while ɡ and ɡj coexist as in gap ɡap ɡjap or guard ɡa ɹ d ɡja ɹ d These variations are distinct phonemes in Jamaican Patois before a ɡja dn is garden while ɡa dn is Gordon kja f is calf while ka f is cough They are not distinct phonemes in Jamaica English because these word pairs are distinguished by the vowel a vs ɔ instead However this fact hasn t stopped educated speakers from incorporating kj in their English at least before unlengthened a Hoewever vowel length can be a relevant factor since it is possible to hear forms like kjat for cat kjaɹɪ for carry kjaɹaktʌ for character and kjaɹɪbiǝn for Caribbean but affluent or aspiring middle class speakers tend to avoid kja ɹ for car due to its longer vowel 19 20 Presumably less educated Jamaican Patois speakers may speak English with several other notable features including a TRAP LOT merger e g with rat and rot homophones to ɔ and a PRIZE CHOICE merger e g with line and loin homophones to ɔi 21 Th stopping is also common One of the most salient sounds of Caribbean English to speakers of outside English dialects is its unique rhythm and intonation Linguists debate whether this system centres mostly on stress tone or a mixture in which the two interact Sometimes Jamaican English is perceived as maintaining less of a contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in other words making all syllables sound relatively equally stressed thus kitchen not ˈkɪtʃɪn so much as kɪtʃɪn perhaps even perceived by a non Caribbean as having second syllable stress kɪˈtʃɪn In Jamaican English normally reduced English vowels are sometimes not reduced and other times are hyper reduced so that token is not ˈtuokn but ˈtuoken yet cement can be as reduced as sment the exact nuances of the rules at play here are also highly debated 22 Language use Jamaican Standard English versus Patois EditJamaican Standard English and Jamaican Patois exist together in a post creole speech continuum Jamaican Creole Patois is used by most people for everyday informal situations it is the language most Jamaicans use at home and are most familiar with as well as the language of most local popular music Jamaican Patois has begun to be used on the radio as well as the news 23 Standard English on the other hand is the language of education high culture government the media and official formal communications It is also the native language of a small minority of Jamaicans typically upper class and upper traditional middle class Most Creole dominant speakers have a fair command of English and Standard English through schooling and exposure to official culture and mass media their receptive skills understanding of Standard English are typically much better than their productive skills their own intended Standard English statements often show signs of Jamaican Creole interference Most writing in Jamaica is done in English including private notes and correspondence Jamaican Patois has a standardised orthography as well 24 but has only recently been taught in some schools so the majority of Jamaicans can read and write Standard English only and have trouble deciphering written Patois in which the writer tries to reflect characteristic structures and pronunciations to differing degrees without compromising readability Written Patois appears mostly in literature especially in folkloristic dialect poems in humoristic newspaper columns and most recently on internet chat sites frequented by younger Jamaicans who seem to have a more positive attitude toward their own language use than their parents 25 While for the sake of simplicity it is customary by whom to describe Jamaican speech in terms of Standard English versus Jamaican Creole a clear cut dichotomy does not describe the actual language use of most Jamaicans citation needed Between the two extremes broad Patois on one end of the spectrum and perfect Standard English on the other there are various in between varieties This situation typically results when a Creole language is in constant contact with Standardised English superstrate or lexifier language and is called a creole speech continuum The least prestigious most Creole variety is called the basilect Standard English or high prestige variety the acrolect and in between versions are known as mesolects Consider for example the following forms im h ihn de da a wok uoba deso basilect im workin ova deso low mesolect H e h is workin over dere high mesolect He is working over there acrolect As noted above the r in over is not pronounced in any variety but the one in dere or there is Jamaicans choose from the varieties available to them according to the situation A Creole dominant speaker will choose a higher variety for formal occasions like official business or a wedding speech and a lower one for relating to friends a Standard English dominant speaker is likely to employ a lower variety when shopping at the market than at their workplace Code switching can also be metacommunicative as when a Standard dominant speaker switches to a more heavily basilect influenced variety in an attempt at humor or to express solidarity See also EditRegional accents of English speakers Nation languageReferences Edit Parish Profiles Jamaica Information Service Retrieved 30 March 2020 Peter L Patrick 1999 Urban Jamaican Creole Variation in the Mesolect John Benjamins Publishing ISBN 90 272 4875 3 Sand A 1999 Linguistic variation in Jamaica A corpus based study of radio and newspaper usage Tubingen G Narr ISBN 978 3 8233 4943 3 a b c Justus Joyce Bennett January 1978 Language and National Integration The Jamaican Case Ethnology 17 1 39 51 doi 10 2307 3773278 JSTOR 3773278 a b c Mair Christian 1 June 2002 Creolisms in an emerging standard Written English in Jamaica English World Wide 23 31 58 doi 10 1075 eww 23 1 03mai Rosenfelder Ingrid 2009 Sociophonetic variation in educated Jamaican English An analysis of the spoken component of ICE Jamaica PDF PhD dissertation University of Freiburg Rosenfelder 2009 p 81 Rosenfelder 2009 p 95 Rosenfelder 2009 p 89 Wells J C 1982 Accents of English 3 Beyond the British Isles Cambridge University Press p 577 ISBN 0 521 28541 0 Rosenfelder 2009 pp 93 176 Irvine Sobers G Alison 2018 The acrolect in Jamaica The architecture of phonological variation Studies in Caribbean Languages 1 Berlin Language Science Press p 53 Rosenfelder Ingrid 2009 Rhoticity in Educated Jamaican English An analysis of the spoken component of ICE Jamaica p 68 Devonish amp Harry 2004 463 a b c Devonish amp Harry 2004 460 Rosenfelder 2009 p 146 Rosenfelder 2009 pp 145 147 Rosenfelder 2009 pp 139 140 Irving Sobers G Alison 2018 pp 45 46 Irving Sober G Alison 1994 Dialect Variation in Jamaican English A Study of the Phonology of Social Group Marking English World Wide Volume 15 1 p 69 Devonish amp Harry 2004 465 Devonish amp Harry 2004 462 468 Bryan Beverley 2004 Jamaican Creole in the process of becoming Ethnic and Racial Studies 27 4 641 659 doi 10 1080 01491987042000216753 S2CID 145631532 Dynamics of orthographic standardisation in Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin Dagmar Deuber and Lars Hinrichs World Englishes 26 No 1 February 2007 pp 22 47 doi 10 1111 j 1467 971X 2007 00486 x Lars Hinrichs 2006 Codeswitching on the Web English and Jamaican Patois in E Mail Communication Amsterdam Philadelphia Benjamins Devonish Hubert Harry Otelemate G 2004 Jamaican Creole and Jamaican English phonology in Schneider Edgar W Burridge Kate Kortmann Bernd Mesthrie Rajend Upton Clive eds A handbook of varieties of English vol 1 Phonology Mouton de Gruyter pp 964 984 ISBN 3 11 017532 0 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Jamaican English amp oldid 1123229962, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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