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Topic: Creole Versus English: Is Jamaican Creole A Language?

Jamaican Creole displays characteristics of a distinct language such as its own phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar rules and vocabulary. It has systematic differences from English in terms of pronunciation of vowels and some consonant sounds. The writing system for Jamaican Creole was developed by Frederick Cassidy and aims to have unambiguous spelling representing each sound. It includes simple short and long vowels as well as complex vowels formed from sequences of short vowels. Consonant spellings generally correspond to English but some symbols like 'Q' and 'C' are not used as the sounds are represented by other letters. 'GY', 'RY', 'MY' and 'CH' represent complex consonant combinations.

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Ockouri Barnes
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128 views4 pages

Topic: Creole Versus English: Is Jamaican Creole A Language?

Jamaican Creole displays characteristics of a distinct language such as its own phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar rules and vocabulary. It has systematic differences from English in terms of pronunciation of vowels and some consonant sounds. The writing system for Jamaican Creole was developed by Frederick Cassidy and aims to have unambiguous spelling representing each sound. It includes simple short and long vowels as well as complex vowels formed from sequences of short vowels. Consonant spellings generally correspond to English but some symbols like 'Q' and 'C' are not used as the sounds are represented by other letters. 'GY', 'RY', 'MY' and 'CH' represent complex consonant combinations.

Uploaded by

Ockouri Barnes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic: Creole versus English

Is Jamaican Creole a language?


Jamaican Creole maybe classified as a language because it has the features because it contains
the aspects/features of a language: phonology, morphology, syntax (structure), grammar (rules in
writing) and vocabulary
Examples
Jamaican Creole English
Sinake Snake
Cyat Cat
Cyar Car
Schrow Straw
Is His
As Has
Bickle Food
Neekback Nape
Fenkeh-fenkeh Weak
Talawah Strong/Tough
Yeye wata Tears

Syntax
Jamaican Creole English
Him did feel away He was
Mi deh a mi yaad I am at home
Weh mi cyar Where is my car
Mary and Fay deh a town Mary and Fay are in town
Dave love ar bad bad Dave loves very much
Repetition of words
Back-back
Beggy-beggy
Fool-
fool
Weti-weti
Picky-picky

The Spelling in Jamaican Creole


The pronunciation of words in Jamaican Creole (JC)differs systematically from the
pronunciation of seemingly similar English Words. Firstly, it is a system which includes sounds
not found in English. Consider the vowel sound found in ‘guot’ and ‘rien’ and compare them to
vowels in English ‘goat’ and ‘rain’. Not only are the Jamaican Creole and English vowels
different in pronunciation, but the Jamaican Creole vowels are not found in English.
Secondly, we find the reverse is true: There are English sounds not found in JC for example the
‘th’ sound in English is not found in JC. Thus, the pronunciation of ‘th’ in English Words such as
‘thin’ and ‘them’ corresponds to ‘t’ & ‘d’ as in ‘tin’ and ‘dem’ in JC.

Velarisation - bars t and d from occurring before an L.


Orthography - study of spelling and how letters combine to represent sound and form word.

The writing system of Jamaican Creole was developed by Frederick Cassidy a Jamaican
linguistic.
Basic Rule. Each sound corresponds unambiguously to a single symbol and vice-versa. There is
no ambiguity of pronunciation in this system. In Jamaica flure are two types of vowels
Simple (monophthongs)
Complex
Simple Vowels
Short Long
A, as in kyat aa, as in kaan
E, as in get ii as in bitt
I, as un win uu as in skuul
O, as in kom
U, as in gud

Complex Vowels
Complex vowels includes a change in their pronunciation resulting from the fact, that they
consist of a sequence of short vowels there spelling identifies the two short vowels of which they
are composed.
Example
ai as in laik (like)
ie as in rien (rain)
uo as in guat (goat)
ou as in out (out)
Most consonant symbols correspond quite straight forwardly to those used in English spelling.
Two symbols that do not occur in Jamaican Creole spelling are Q and C as the sound which they
represent are already represented by K and S. In the spelling of ‘N and G’ and ‘S and H’ we see
some deviation from the sound per symbol- one symbol per sound rule both are complex
symbols representing sounds unfortunately, the Latin alphabet does not provide other useful
symbols for sounds.
Complex Consonants
The complex consonant symbol ‘GY’ ‘RY’ ‘MY’ and ‘CH’ are used for consonants which
involve a combination of two consonants in their pronunciation. The spelling represents the fact
that these are complex consonants. A final deviation is seen in the case of ‘J’ which is a single
symbol, but a double consonant in pronunciation quite comparable to ‘CH’.
One final remark, concerns the spelling of the first sound in a word like TRAI (TRY) and DRAI
(DRY). The first sound is not really pronounced as T or D, it sounds like CH in TRY and J in
DRY. This is a predictable effect which the h (missing word) any T or D that comes before it.

The Consonant Symbols


b, as in bait(bite) gy, as in gyaadn (garden)
d, as in def ( def) ny, as in nyma (eat)
g, as in goli (gully) oh,as in chakachaka (untidy)
v, as in vain (zip) p, as in pik (pick)
z, as in zip (zip) t, as in tek (take)
m, as in mada (mother) k, as in Koat (coat)
n, as in neva (never) f, as in feda (feather)
w. as in wiik (week) s, as in staam (storm)
h, as in hous (house) l, as in lait (light)
r, as in rait (write)
y, as in yelo (yellow)
sh, as in shuga (sugar)
ky, as in kyaan (cannot)
ng,as in ting (thing)
j, as in jus(just)

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