Jamaicans have a rare talent for mangling the English language. One of the many ways we do this is by gleefully mis-pronouncing even very common words. Consider the short list of words below and their mispronunciations. (Note: If you are not seeing why these are mispronunciations please seek immediate assistance.)
Anthony: An-tunny or H’antonny. You’ll note that Jamaicans have a love/hate relationship with h’s. We love to put them where they are not needed and hate to use them where they are necessary. A great example of this is found at public events when one hears the national anthem beautifully sung in chorus: “H’eternal Fah-der bless H’our land, Guard H’us with your mighty ‘and…”
Ask: Ahkse or Axe
Certificate: Serfy-ticket
Charmaine: Shah-mayne
Desk: Deks (Note that the “k” and the “s” have swopped positions”)
Drawers: Draaws
Dwayne: Doo-waayne
Evening: Eveling. Discard the “n”, add an “l”. Independence/Emancipation celebrations are coming up soon and before they are over I guarantee you will hear someone singing Lousie Bennett’s classic Jamaican folk song: “Eveling time, work is over, now is eveling time…”
Film: Flim (Note that the “l” and the “I” have exchanged places)
Jeremy: Germy
Judith: Juditt. (Go ahead and ignore the “h” at the end)
Leroy: Lee-rai
Marva: Maw-vah. (Feel free to ignore the “r” in the middle of the name.)
Measures: Medghures (Insert a completely unnecessary “d” just for the hell of it)
Norman: Naw-man
Patricia: Pah-treesha
Picture: Pick-cha
Sausage: Satches
Smith: Suh-mitt or Smitt (I once knew a Pah-treesha H’Elaine ‘ortense Suh-mitt. True story.)
Snack: Suh-nack. (Similarly, Snake becomes Suh-nake)
Shrimp: Swims or Swimps. We all know someone who pronounces it this way and that person is guaranteed to use the word at the most embarrassing time:
Wife (talking to waiter in fancy restaurant): “I’ll have the lobster, and my husband will have the shrimp.”
Husband: "Good choice honey. I LOVE swims"
Title: Tie-kle
Trouble: Chubble. As my grandmother often used to say: “Nevah chubble chubble till chubble chubble you”
Under: Can variously be pronounced honda, anda, hunder or awnder
Violence: Voy-lence. I’ve heard this mispronunciation on radio, television and even in Jamaica’s Parliament. It’s so ingrained in some people that there’s no sense trying to point it out to them. Efforts to correct them usually go something like this:
You: “John, the word is pronounced vi-o-lence”
John (with a blank stare): “But that’s exactly what I said - voy-lence.”
Work: Rerk or Herk
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written by Greg, January 10, 2011
In short, have fun with your perspectives on Jamaica, but never at the risk of echoing centuries of denigration and misinformation. That would be irresponsible at best.
And take a look at this:
English/Patois
She eats. Shi eat. (Simple present)
She is eating. Shi a eat (Present progressive)
She ate. Shi di eat. (Simple past)
She was eating. Shi did a eat (Past continuous)
She is going to eat. Shi a go eat (Immediate future)
She will eat. Shi wi eat (Simple future)
She would eat. Shi wudda eat. (Present conditional)
She would have eaten. She wudda di eat (Past conditional)
And how about negation?
She is not eating. Shi nah eat.
They are not going. Dem nah go.
How about pluralisation.
Numerable quantities -
Where are the books? (Marked by an S in English)
Weh di book dem? (Marked by "dem" in Patois)
Of course, as in all language, some of these structures have variants and irregularities, but the point is that there is structure, order and thought. Where's the mangling?
All the best... or as we say: Waak good! =)
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written by Sonya, November 20, 2010
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written by Sonya, November 20, 2010
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written by jajewel, October 17, 2010
otaheite apple....etiopi apple
nutmeg....nutneg
something....sintin or simting
film....flim
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written by Layne, September 29, 2010
The reason I said the language was "classified" not identified was that it needed to be classified for Jamaicans to be allowed to bring a translator to British courts. They found that Jamaicans were being unduly hurt by the court process because they were not being understood in court and "English" as their spoken language would continue to be a disadvantage. As pointed out in the article and comments here many Jamaicans speak creole or pigeon English and cannot make the distinction.
In court without a translator and because most potois-only speakers aren't highly educated it is easy to see why it made sense to give the language a classification for the protection of the people.
Thanks for pointing out that the irish do far more with misplaced H's than jamaicans do and, thanks for leaving out the scots, since they don't even speak english. hehehe. J/k
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written by James, August 20, 2010
For your information Layne, most Jamaicans whether they're speaking Patois or standard English, can't help dropping 'h's where they're needed or adding them where they're not neccessary.
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written by James, August 20, 2010
For your information Layne, most Jamaicans whether they're speaking Patwa or standard English, can't help dropping 'h's where they're needed or adding them where they're not neccessary.
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written by James, August 20, 2010
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written by Ellen, August 18, 2010
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written by Ellen, August 18, 2010
And isn't it time that you were able to distinguish between what you call "mangled English" and the Jamaican Creole? If you don't have the linguistic knowledge required to do that, why don't you just stick to things you DO know about??
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written by Carol, August 10, 2010
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written by chiny jamaican gal, August 10, 2010
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written by Beverley, August 10, 2010
Thanks for this really warm article.
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written by maya, July 22, 2010
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written by voice, July 18, 2010
jinks for drink
peas-ah for pizza.
lol. hilarious article. thanks.
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written by Layne, July 18, 2010
Dat way doze of hus ho not suh good wid di Henglish will feel good about ourselves. We will know dat doze of you ho go to real real school and 'ave big cerfi-ticket can give us some backitive on our speechifying.
All very funny stuff. Keep up the good work.
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written by Shelly-Ann Dunkley, July 18, 2010
@Layne, I think you are taking this a little too seriously. But your points are taken and quite interesting.
Is it Potois or Patois?
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written by Layne, July 16, 2010
First, in case you didn't know, Jamaican potois was classified as a language about 5 or so years ago and can be studied in British universit(y)ies. Some of what you are pointing out is potois as opposed to English, so please at least clarify as such.
Misspeaking, mis-pronounciations and cross-phoneme-isms isn't unique to Jamaicans, so please take the time to draw parallels with British and American English. I make that point because truth be told many Jamaicans think that 'fariners" sound better and speak well no matter what they are saying. Obviously you have an above average command of English so please let's shore up the belief in our mother tongue.
Back to the linguistics behind your analysis. The gutteral stop allows for the (mis) pronunciation of H. The tendency to mis-breathe that phoneme is traced to regions of England and Ireland of many original white settlers of Jamaica. These H adding/dropping continues in the UK as much as it does in Jamaica, but we don't use it to define British English. Americans do it with "Herbs" and a few other words.
The "T" to "D" sound which Americans do falls into the same linguistic categorization as the "title" "tie-ckle" example you gave. It is an alveolar stop and though we take it in one direction it is as defensible as the yankee "tie-dle".
No, I won't go through all of them. Yes, they are terribly funny. No, I will not talk about the socio-economic indicators they provide, mainly because I hope when you do address the parallels you don't start parsing the difference between a Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama or between cockney (or other regional dialects) and received pronunciations. Please define them by their worst native speakers. ...continued next
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But truly, Jamaican Patwa is a complex, fascinating, beautiful language, and i coudn't say less about the Jamaican boy's voice.
Powerful and soft, woulnd't know how to describe
greetings fram Paris france