Jamaican Patois (Volume 1 Issue 2)

SAKURAIRO LANGUAGE SERIES

Oral Dialect or Written Language?

I mentioned in Issue 1 that Jamaican Patois is a dialect of the English Language and not a separate language. 

I also mentioned that some people were of a different opinion. One of those persons is a widely known Jamaican and University Lecturer, Miss Carolyn Cooper. 

Carolyn Cooper writes a blog, called Jamaica Woman Tongue, in which she uses Standard English, and two forms of Jamaican Patois phonetic styles. In reality, most Jamaicans do not intentionally write Patois because it is a spoken dialect. https://carolynjoycooper.wordpress.com/

However, for some time now, some language and culture scholars have been trying to formalize Jamaican Patois by assigning spelling styles to it and even creating dictionaries and a few book translations (including the Bible). 

According to Carolyn Cooper, the two language phonetic systems for Jamaican Patois are referred to as 'Chaka-Chaka' and 'Prapa- Prapa'. According to Cooper's blog in a September 25, 2015 post, the former represents the English based spelling of  Jamaican Patois and the latter represents the "specialist phonetic system designed by the Jamaican Linguist Frederic Cassidy" - Cooper (2015).

For me, the Cassidy phonetic system is difficult to read and sounds different from what I've come to know as regular Patois in the urban and suburban areas. However, if you would like to explore the Cassidy or 'prapa prapa' phonetic system, please visit http://www.jumieka.com/grama.html

Pronouns

English --- Patois

I - Mi

You (Singular) - Yu / Yuh / Yo

He - 'im

She - Shi

It - It 

We - Wi

You (Plural) - Oonu 

(The 'oo' in 'oonu' is pronounced like the o's in 'food'.)

They / Them - Dem

Until next time, walk good! 

(I wish you well, until I see you again)