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Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is the variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. [1] A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (a creole language), though not entirely a sharp distinction so much as a gradual continuum between two extremes. [2]
Jamaica is regarded as a bilingual country, with two major languages used by the population. [142] [132] The official language is (Jamaican) English, which is "used in all domains of public life", including the government, the legal
Female patois speaker saying two sentences A Jamaican Patois speaker discussing the usage of the language. Jamaican Patois (/ ˈ p æ t w ɑː /; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora.
In 2002, the Jamaican Language Unit was set up at the University of the West Indies at Mona to begin standardizing the language, with the aim of supporting non-English-speaking Jamaicans according to their constitutional guarantees of equal rights, as services of the state are normally provided in English, which a significant portion of the ...
The bulk of the Jamaican diaspora resides in other Anglophone countries, namely Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Jamaican populations are also prominent in other Caribbean countries , territories and Commonwealth realms , where in the Cayman Islands , born Jamaicans, as well as Caymanians of Jamaican origin, make up 26.8% of ...
Further, within Jamaican English, h-dropping is common in some social classes, but uncommon in others. [12] Additionally, in territories with English-derived creole languages, the phonetic distinction between English and creole is thought to be continuous rather than discrete, with the creole acrolect differing 'only trivially' from English.
An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the lexifier, ... Dialect of Jamaican Patois
The official language of Jamaica is Jamaican Standard English, which is used in all official circumstances in the country. In addition to English, there is a creole derivative called Jamaican Patois (pronounced patwa, ( / ˈ p æ t w ɑː / )) which is the common language among Jamaican citizens.