Jamaican English
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Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is a variety of English native to
Sociolinguistics
Jamaican Standard English is a type of International Standard English (
Grammar
Despite Jamaican Standard English being conflated with the British Standard Dialect, there are great similarities between grammar, idiom, and vocabulary.[5]
Phonology
Features of the Jamaican Standard English pronunciation, include the characteristic pronunciation of the /aʊ/
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.
Merger of the diphthongs in
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,
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
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
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[
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.
See also
- Regional accents of English speakers
- Nation language
References
- ^ "Parish Profiles". Jamaica Information Service. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
- ISBN 90-272-4875-3.
- ISBN 978-3-8233-4943-3.
- ^ JSTOR 3773278.
- ^ .
- ^ 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.
- 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 & Harry (2004:463)
- ^ a b c Devonish & 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 & Harry (2004:465)
- ^ Devonish & Harry (2004:462, 468)
- S2CID 145631532.
- .
- ^ 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