Orthography (spelling system) at Wikipedia.List of Jamaican Patois words of African origin at WikipediaĪlphabet and Pronunciation.Kingston, Jamaica: LRD Enterprises, 1983. Jamaicanisms : the Jamaican language from A to Z, a visitors' guide to native talk. It exists as mostly a spoken language but is used for musical purposes.The pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from English but the writing system shows commonalities with the English alphabet.Developed in the 17th century when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to the forms of English spoken by the slaveholders.Spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language.English-based creole language with West African influences.Jamaican Patois (or Patwa) or Jamaican Creole. Both JSL and ASL are rapidly replacing Konchri Sain for a variety of reasons. The Jamaican education system has only recently begun to offer formal instruction in Patois, while retaining JSE as the "official language of instruction".Īdditionally, some Jamaicans use one or more of Jamaican Sign Language (JSL), American Sign Language (ASL) or the indigenous Jamaican Country Sign Language (Konchri Sain). A 2007 survey by the Jamaican Language Unit found that 17.1 percent of the population were monolingual in Jamaican Standard English (JSE), 36.5 percent were monolingual in Patois, and 46.4 percent were bilingual, although earlier surveys had pointed to a greater degree of bilinguality (up to 90 percent). "Pure" Patois, though sometimes seen as merely a particularly aberrant dialect of English, is essentially mutually unintelligible with standard English and is best thought of a separate language.
The two exist in a dialect continuum, with speakers using a different register of speech depending on context and whom they are speaking to. However, the primary spoken language is an English-based creole called Jamaican Patois (or Patwa). The official language is English, which is "used in all domains of public life", including the government, the legal system, the media, and education. Jamaica is regarded as a bilingual country, with two major languages in use by the population.
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