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Bredder Tukoma
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Posted: Sunday January 21st, 2007 23:37 |
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15 Reasons why Jamaican Patois is a Language ?
By Karl Folkes
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
In the fifteen points below I have summarized the issues on why Jamaican Patois is a language. As a Jamaican educator and linguist I have been working diligently to have our Jamaican language fully and officially recognized by our Jamaican Government. So far I've been receiving favorable commentary from the Jamaican Press and the Jamaican Government. Thanks for your highly valuable support! Karl Folkes (Yaadibwai).
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 contact Karl Folkes please use the following email address but remove EMAIL BLOCK from the address - kfolkesEMAIL@BLOCKnycboe.net
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Black_Power
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Posted: Monday January 22nd, 2007 07:46 |
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ive often said this..
I mean when to go to some of the country parts and hear the raw patois and they way they compose the words then you see it is a different lauguage NOT just broken english and some put it.
also the patoisyou hear here when british born jamaicans "put it on" is a much waterd down version
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Prince Hakeem
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Posted: Monday January 22nd, 2007 09:33 |
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Black_Power wrote: ive often said this..
I mean when to go to some of the country parts and hear the raw patois and they way they compose the words then you see it is a different lauguage NOT just broken english and some put it.
also the patoisyou hear here when british born jamaicans "put it on" is a much waterd down version
Exactly. I tell people all the time who haven't been to Jamaica dat if you visit there and hear the natives you won't understand half of what they're saying for the most part and what you hear in this country is nothing. At least I can say I'm bilingual lol.
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mba
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Posted: Sunday February 4th, 2007 18:59 |
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I don't think anyone needs a reason to justify patios or pidgin to ever being a language in itself. I know I definitely believe it. In Nigeria - there are parts of the country that when people are speaking broken english you would need subtitles to understand what is going on - in fact even the United Nations recognises that Pidgin / Broken english is a language and have written their human rights bill in that language (see below) [actually the stuff below is standard nigerian pidgin, but in the hardcore areas any foundation level pidgin english speaker will be completely lost]
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/pcm.htm
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
For December 10, 1948, di meeting of di whole world, wey dem de call United Nations (naim be say all di kontris wey de for di world come unite to be one), come hold talk and dem come bring out one paper and write wetin suppose to be our right inside. Dem call am Human Rights. Dis na di rights wey human beings get from di time wey dem born us. Na dis rights make human beings take different from animals. All di tings wey dem talk about di rights, wey human beings suppose to get, na im de for this small book. Since dis ting de veri important, dem come tell all di kontris of di world say make dem make sure say all di people for their kontri know about am, make sure say dem write and put am for where people go see am well, well, make sure say their people read am. Make dem also make sure say everibodi wey de for secondary skuls, unifasiti, plus dem all other places people dey go skul, know about am well, well. Make dem no worry wich kind goment de di kontris.
Preamble
Dem recognise say human beings get dignity wey dey with us and rights wey go make all of us friendly with each other, so tay, we all come be like one family. Na dis be di foundation of our freedom and peace wey de for di whole world.
Since e be like say, dem no see our right as any ting and dem come de do dem as dem like, dis come make people de behave like say dem be animals, dis come vex everibodi, so tay, dem come talk say everi human being must go get their freedom, wey go make dem talk any tink say naim be di right ting and wen dem de talk, dem no go fear to talk. Na dis be di beta ting wey all common people want.
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Ms Price
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Posted: Sunday February 4th, 2007 20:56 |
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Black_Power wrote: also the patoisyou hear here when british born jamaicans "put it on" is a much waterd down version
LOL
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Dada
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Posted: Sunday February 4th, 2007 21:21 |
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No I disagree.
If you hear a Man or Woman from Dundee speaking even the other Jocks will not understand what is being said. It is a dialect , a heavy one but a veriation of a root.
I hate this "lets make our acent a language" talk it's a cop out.
In Africa an african can speak two or three languages fluently and also speak english in a comprehensive manner. where as in J.A many people cannot even speak the national language. 
Ebonics and all that clap trap is simply saying let's bring us down another level.
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Black_Power
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Posted: Monday February 5th, 2007 08:06 |
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dada where do you get your info from? Ive never met a jamaican who cannot speak the national language so please enlighten me
and whos talking about EBONICS????
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Bredder Tukoma
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Posted: Wednesday February 7th, 2007 00:07 |
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Ebonics indeed. Those two or three diffrent languages the African speaks on the continent are often deriatives of the same language group anyway.
I suppose we should all learn the Great British national tongue and elevate ourselves should we. As if Jamaicans cannot speak English when their ready.
Damn eediot.
Last edited on Wednesday February 7th, 2007 00:14 by Bredder Tukoma
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Dada
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Posted: Wednesday February 7th, 2007 15:45 |
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Black power,
What I mean is that in many african countries where people speak many different languages thier command and pronouncation of English is better than many Jamaicans who have only one langauge to learn, they same could apply to the Scots, Geordies or scouses.
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Bredder Tukoma
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Posted: Thursday February 8th, 2007 14:01 |
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Black Power
No pay dem nu mind yah man.. becaw.. if dem feel seh fi dem language superior den a just mel dem waan gi yu.
You see people like Dada who I can only assume comes from a older more colonial educated minded generation forget that so called spoken standard English does not exist.. except among the upper classes and newcasters and the like. Does the average white man in South London speak standard English.. much less Brum or the Black Country. Its class and politically driven. As was the role of the Akan/Ashanti related customs and languages of the Africans in Jamaica during slavery itself. Natural numerical dominance and polictical expediency governed the customs of those early Africans in jamaica and how the whole population was influenced in time to come.
I just come from yard this very week and speak to whole heap of businesss people/ street vendor/ even listen to an excellent and enlightening sermon by a Pastor in a church/ and my conclusion is this:
1) Jamaicans will often use standard English if they assume that you will struggle with their language..so the use of languiage is often based on context. Even the Pastor was speaking English and drop into raw patwa to emphasise certain points. About most Jamaicans cant speak English..ring any random Jamaican business or speak English to any street vendor and see how they will invariably reply to you unless they wish to express themselves fully. Even the most speaky spokey up town Jamaican Anglophiles will speak Jamaican to emphasise certain important points in which they wish no mis-understanding to be made.
2) Language is bound to how a people think and express themselves and their culture. Language and culture are husband and wife. So you will find that even a Chinese or Indian Jamaican citizen will speak patwa in a Chinese or Indian accent. And they will speak English the same way. And have their own slant on how they express things in line with their cultural thinking/heartbeat.
3) Cultural pride and identity is often expressed through language or accent. Thats why the Irish guy I work with ( who I can hardly understand at the best of times) does not put on southern English accent when speaking.. why?? beacuse he is confortable in how he speaks and the way he wishes to express himself. Many Uk residents up North drop their regional accents etc because of the very predudice that exists within their own homogenous population base. Many English actors are forced to do this also and retrain their voice and prounouciation to fit the ruling class stauts quo.. (which by the way comes with all the racist and white supremist baggage and is historically South Eastern/Home counties/London based).
So as you say BP the way they compose their words and sentences/ which is often compared to standard Englsih is back to front as regards the noun and the subject. so "fi who fa dis ya cellular?" would in English be "who's phone is this?".
Ive never heard a born Nigerian speak English in a Southern accent (call it what it is) unless he's a cocunut. Comprehensive to be understood yes.. and the Jamaican is no different. But certain words and sentences they cannot help saying certain ways. Its an intrinsic part of their being.
Dem waan tek we culture and humanity an tun ina duppy. Language is one of the primary weapons in the assault on the African mind. Now and in the past.
Last edited on Thursday February 8th, 2007 14:18 by Bredder Tukoma
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An_Advanced_Spark
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Posted: Thursday February 8th, 2007 14:46 |
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Prince Hakeem wrote: Black_Power wrote: ive often said this..
I mean when to go to some of the country parts and hear the raw patois and they way they compose the words then you see it is a different lauguage NOT just broken english and some put it.
also the patoisyou hear here when british born jamaicans "put it on" is a much waterd down version
Exactly. I tell people all the time who haven't been to Jamaica dat if you visit there and hear the natives you won't understand half of what they're saying for the most part and what you hear in this country is nothing. At least I can say I'm bilingual lol. I had to smile at this, because the other day I was listening to a lecture on Caribbean poetry and we had handouts of a poem that was Written in Jamaican Patois, and the lecturer even said ' I won't embarass my self by reading this as I can't' , I whispered to someone next to me who looked confused as hell by what was written ( a snob), I just said 'Oh you can't read it?' ' Good! cause mi Can!'
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ChubbiChix
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Posted: Thursday February 8th, 2007 15:08 |
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| Really, any type of speech that is spoken and understood by more then one person is a valid language regardless to their unique grammatical characteristics, rules or social status. So Patois is a language regardless to weither some feel its good or bad, thats their own personal feelings. Last edited on Thursday February 8th, 2007 15:09 by ChubbiChix
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Posted: Saturday February 10th, 2007 19:26 |
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Dada - I don't know if you ever watched the documentary sister's in Law - I believe set in cameroun, but it's similar to Nigeria - My grandmother doesn't speak english and the closest she gets to english is when she asks me "how your body dey" (how are you?). broken english and I have heard some hardcore patois in my time is a language. I actually do not feel that black people should be under obligation to learn english grammatically as it is not that 'natural' language and the changes we make to it is a mix of history, present and future (colloquials).
You may not know, but other 'respectable' countries also have a version of patois or pidgin - in singapore they called their broken english 'Singlish'.
Dada wrote:
No I disagree.
If you hear a Man or Woman from Dundee speaking even the other Jocks will not understand what is being said. It is a dialect , a heavy one but a veriation of a root.
I hate this "lets make our acent a language" talk it's a cop out.
In Africa an african can speak two or three languages fluently and also speak english in a comprehensive manner. where as in J.A many people cannot even speak the national language.
Ebonics and all that clap trap is simply saying let's bring us down another level.
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mba
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Posted: Saturday February 10th, 2007 19:30 |
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to Dada - not sure where you are from, but I am african in origin, but very protective of caribbeans all african countries as I was raised to believe these were my brothers and sisters.
It's not as black and white a picture as you paint - I have met Jamaicans who speak standard english and take pride in speaking well. I feel slightly patronising even typing this. You just need to widen your horizon - there are so many well to do, well educated and well spoken Jamaicans and blacks in general - they just don't shout up and down about it.
Dada wrote:
Black power,
What I mean is that in many african countries where people speak many different languages thier command and pronouncation of English is better than many Jamaicans who have only one langauge to learn, they same could apply to the Scots, Geordies or scouses.
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Posted: Saturday February 10th, 2007 19:45 |
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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.
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.
The two best arguements. Languages evolve and not everything is static.
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LadyDay
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Posted: Saturday February 10th, 2007 20:19 |
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| i wonder if i can find my thread on this fredb made a good contrbution
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Bredder Tukoma
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Posted: Sunday February 11th, 2007 06:32 |
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mba wrote: I don't think anyone needs a reason to justify patios or pidgin to ever being a language in itself. I know I definitely believe it. In Nigeria - there are parts of the country that when people are speaking broken english you would need subtitles to understand what is going on - in fact even the United Nations recognises that Pidgin / Broken english is a language and have written their human rights bill in that language (see below) [actually the stuff below is standard nigerian pidgin, but in the hardcore areas any foundation level pidgin english speaker will be completely lost]
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/pcm.htm
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
For December 10, 1948, di meeting of di whole world, wey dem de call United Nations (naim be say all di kontris wey de for di world come unite to be one), come hold talk and dem come bring out one paper and write wetin suppose to be our right inside. Dem call am Human Rights. Dis na di rights wey human beings get from di time wey dem born us. Na dis rights make human beings take different from animals. All di tings wey dem talk about di rights, wey human beings suppose to get, na im de for this small book. Since dis ting de veri important, dem come tell all di kontris of di world say make dem make sure say all di people for their kontri know about am, make sure say dem write and put am for where people go see am well, well, make sure say their people read am. Make dem also make sure say everibodi wey de for secondary skuls, unifasiti, plus dem all other places people dey go skul, know about am well, well. Make dem no worry wich kind goment de di kontris.
Preamble
Dem recognise say human beings get dignity wey dey with us and rights wey go make all of us friendly with each other, so tay, we all come be like one family. Na dis be di foundation of our freedom and peace wey de for di whole world.
Since e be like say, dem no see our right as any ting and dem come de do dem as dem like, dis come make people de behave like say dem be animals, dis come vex everibodi, so tay, dem come talk say everi human being must go get their freedom, wey go make dem talk any tink say naim be di right ting and wen dem de talk, dem no go fear to talk. Na dis be di beta ting wey all common people want.
Damn..thats the closest thing to Jamaican Ive read from another country outside the Caribbean.
"dem no go fear to talk" damn right!!
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LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday February 14th, 2007 17:52 |
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thought this was good for wikipedia.. they even have a breakdown on jamaican english
however even better they acknowledge patois as a language
Jamaican Creole, also known locally as Patois/(Patwa) or simply Jamaican, is an English/African-based language --not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English-- used primarily on the island of Jamaica. Jamaican is the descendant of a 17th century creolization process which, simply put, consisted of West and Central Africans acquiring and nativizing the vernacular and dialectal British Englishes (including significant exposure to Irish and Scottish varieties), with which their enslavement brought them in contact. Of course it must be understood that all languages are derived from usually more than one already existing language. For examples, Italian, Catalan, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are all derived from Latin and respective local languages. Modern day Jamaican creole is what is called a linguistic continuum in linguistics terms[1][2] -- meaning that the variety of the language closest to the lexifier language (the acrolect) cannot be distinguished systematically from intermediate varieties (collectively referred to as the mesolect) nor even from the most divergent rural varieties (collectively referred to as the basilect).
Significant Jamaican-speaking communities exist among Jamaican expatriates in Miami, New York City, Toronto, Hartford, Washington D.C., Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama (in the Caribbean coast), and London.[3] Mesolectal forms are similar to Basilectal Belizean Creole, and a mutually intelligible variety is found in San Andres Islands, Colombia, brought to the island by descendants of Jamaican maroons in the 18th century. Jamaican creole exists mostly as a spoken language. Although standard British English is used for most writing in Jamaica, Jamaican has been gaining ground as a literary language for almost a hundred years. Claude McKay published his book of Jamaican poems Songs of Jamaica in 1912. Creole and English are frequently used for stylistic contrast in new forms of internet writing.[4]
Jamaican pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from English, despite heavy usage of English words or derivatives. It is to the point where a native speaker of a non-Caribbean English dialect can only understand a heavily accented Jamaican speaker if he/she speaks slowly and foregoes the use of the numerous idioms that are common in Jamaican. Jamaican Creole displays similarities to the pidgin and creole languages of West Africa due to their common descent from the blending of African substrate languages with European tongues. Behind the barrier of very different accents, there is actually mutual intelligibility between many of them, such as Sierra Leone's Krio and Nigerian Pidgin English, and Jamaican Creole.
This is due to the fact that many Jamaican words have their origin in various African languages and the language syntax is mostly derived from the various African languages. Pluralisation of nouns is done by either prepending a cardinal --de five bud=the five birds-- or by appending the plural indicator, "dem" --de bud dem=the birds. Similarly, verb tense is specified using prepended tense indicators --mi swim, mi a go swim, mi beh~ swim, mi a fi swim, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Creole
click link for more info its a good read
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LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday February 14th, 2007 18:09 |
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here is a really good site
its written in jamaican creole/patoi but with an english translation
check it out
http://www.geocities.com/yotaino/langwij.html
Last edited on Wednesday February 14th, 2007 18:09 by LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday February 14th, 2007 18:41 |
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Dada wrote: No I disagree.
If you hear a Man or Woman from Dundee speaking even the other Jocks will not understand what is being said. It is a dialect , a heavy one but a veriation of a root.
I hate this "lets make our acent a language" talk it's a cop out.
In Africa an african can speak two or three languages fluently and also speak english in a comprehensive manner. where as in J.A many people cannot even speak the national language.
Ebonics and all that clap trap is simply saying let's bring us down another level.
 ...I got to this thread late, but this post is commendable. I didn't want to say it since I am not Jamaican born, but this is exactly what I was thinking. When I hang out with my Jamaican friends and their families long enough, I start to understand what they are saying and even start talking like them. If it is its own language, then it may be the easiest language to learn on Earth.
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Posted: Thursday February 15th, 2007 16:33 |
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Bredder Tukoma wrote: 14. "Jamaican" is the native language of most of its speakers for whom English is indeed a second language.
Something Jamaicans are very proud of.
This centuries old language, has been a continuous, natural part of Jamaican culture and life.
This language was developed by Africans who were determined to keep their culture (which was expressed in it's highest form through successful military resistance), during the mass European kidnapping and genocide of the African race (slavery).
Secrecy was and remains a key component of the "Patwa" and the language during the Maafa, was not understood by whites (and still never really understood by people not steeped in the Island's heritage), aiding Africans, fighting colonialists, throughout the Island.
The Jamaican language was developed by Africans, no one else, and represents a "reservoir of culture" (that links us directly with our African ancestors), which if not understood, makes knowing Jamaican people, their psychology and cultural history, difficult.
Cu yah!! Dis yah Breshi, oonu kyaan nyam!!
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History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals
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Bredder Tukoma
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