January 3, 2013

Jamiekan

Jamiekan, also known as Jamaican Creole, Patwa (or Patois) is spoken by many Jamaicans. Jamaicans are said to be diglossic, that is, they speak both Jamiekan and English along a continuum, depending on the communicative and social situation. Jamiekan contains words from English, West African, and French languages (Cassidy, 1966). In 2001, the Parliament of Jamaica created a Charter of Rights that included protection from discrimination on the basis of language use and recommended recognition of two co-existing language varieties in Jamaica. The Jamaican Language Unit (Di Jamiekan Langwij Yuunit) took effect in September 2002 as a language planning agency to foster the use of Jamiekan.

Jamiekan phonology consists of 33 different phonemes, comprising 21 consonants and 12 vowels (five short vowels, three long vowels, and four diphthongs) (Devonish & Harry, 2004; Harry, 2006). Phonological rules common to Jamiekan include: /h/ deletion or insertion, palatalization of plosives, obstruent neutralization, obstruent weakening, and labialization (Harry, 2006).

Information based on:
Washington, K. N. (2012). Translation to practice: Typical bidialectal speech acquisition in Jamaica. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 101-105). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
References:

Cassidy, F. G. (1966). Multiple etymologies in Jamaican creole. American Speech, 41(3), 211-215. 
Devonish, H., & Harry, O. G. (2004). Jamaican phonology. In B. Kortman, & E. W. Shneider, (Eds.). A handbook of varieties of English, vol 1: Phonology, (pp. 441-471). Berlin: Moton De Gruyter. 
Harry, O. G. (2006). Jamaican creole. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36(1), 125-131.