Patois is a creole language whose vocabulary largely comes from English, and there’s a gradient of dialects between Patois and Jamaican Standard English, but pure Patois is considered mutually unintelligible with Jamaican English and thus a separate language. Moreover:
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 bilingualism (up to 90 percent).
‘The Harder They Come’, a popular Jamaican film, was referred to as “the first English-language film shown in the US with subtitles” due to thick Patois used in it. So there’s indeed pervasive confusion, but in the end Patois often just can’t be understood by English-speakers.
Fun fact: Patois developed starting in the seventeenth century, and mixes languages of West and Central Africa, used by the slaves, with British and Irish English and Scots, used by the slaveholders. Where Scots is itself a sister language of English, descended from Early Middle English.
To clarify, patois is a generic term, as is creole, and can apply to any non-standardized language and is not specific to any particular location or group or language. That’s why it’s called “Jamaican patois” in the screenshot.
Thanks. I know there are thousands of languages, but Jamaican is the only ‘patois’ I’ve encountered in wide discussion, so amn’t used to differentiating. It seems also to be an umbrella term, whereas Jamaican Patois is actually a creole language.
til Jamaican has a special dialect that is kind of english
Patois is a creole language whose vocabulary largely comes from English, and there’s a gradient of dialects between Patois and Jamaican Standard English, but pure Patois is considered mutually unintelligible with Jamaican English and thus a separate language. Moreover:
got it Thanks!! I really didn’t know
‘The Harder They Come’, a popular Jamaican film, was referred to as “the first English-language film shown in the US with subtitles” due to thick Patois used in it. So there’s indeed pervasive confusion, but in the end Patois often just can’t be understood by English-speakers.
Fun fact: Patois developed starting in the seventeenth century, and mixes languages of West and Central Africa, used by the slaves, with British and Irish English and Scots, used by the slaveholders. Where Scots is itself a sister language of English, descended from Early Middle English.
To clarify, patois is a generic term, as is creole, and can apply to any non-standardized language and is not specific to any particular location or group or language. That’s why it’s called “Jamaican patois” in the screenshot.
Thanks. I know there are thousands of languages, but Jamaican is the only ‘patois’ I’ve encountered in wide discussion, so amn’t used to differentiating. It seems also to be an umbrella term, whereas Jamaican Patois is actually a creole language.
Don’t they spell the specific Jamaican language “Patwa”, to differentiate it from the idea of a patois in general?