JAMAICA
Jamaica is a country and an island located in America that belongs to the Greater Antilles. It is in the Caribbean Sea and it lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres west of La Española. With an area of 10,911 km2, Jamaica is the largest island of the Commonwealth Caribbean and the third largest of the Greater Antilles.
Jamaica was a spanish colony named Santiago since 1494, but in 1655 spanish people were expelled by english people and Jamaica became one of the most important slaves colony of the British Empire. In that moment, the population of the island adopted the english language and the name "Santiago" was replaced by "Jamaica". On 6 August 1962 the island got the independence but english continues being its official language. In fact, it is the third english-spoken country more populated. However, "creole" or "patois", which is a mix of english and african languages, is spoken in rural areas, it is used
increasingly in urban areas and it is used everyday for informal
situation.
*These pictures show different stamps with the theme of the jamaican independece.*
*¡¡If you clik this link, you will listen to an explanation of what Patois is, what words it takes and where belong to these words!!*
On the one hand, it is necessary to mention that there
isn’t a clear distinction between English and Patois. So, we are going to begin differentiating Jamaican English and British English. The pronunciation of Jamaican Standard English is seemed to the Irish pronunciation. One of the most characteristic differences resides in that the mid central vowels of English, unstressed /ə/, became /a/ in Jamaican, for example /bita/ “bitter”. However, Jamaican spelling isn’t more different from British spelling. Also, Jamaican English shares lots of words with English. People tend to use British vocabulary, but there is an American influence. For example, people use words like “apartments” or “townhouses”.
isn’t a clear distinction between English and Patois. So, we are going to begin differentiating Jamaican English and British English. The pronunciation of Jamaican Standard English is seemed to the Irish pronunciation. One of the most characteristic differences resides in that the mid central vowels of English, unstressed /ə/, became /a/ in Jamaican, for example /bita/ “bitter”. However, Jamaican spelling isn’t more different from British spelling. Also, Jamaican English shares lots of words with English. People tend to use British vocabulary, but there is an American influence. For example, people use words like “apartments” or “townhouses”.
On the other hand, it is important to differentiate Jamaican Patois. One of the things that we should underline is that Jamaican
Standard pronunciation differs from Jamaican Patois pronunciation: people who
speak Patois aren’t immediately intelligible, because they
pronounce
words joined and they cut the words.
In this link, there is an explianation about the subject pronouns in Patois
This one shows some words in Patois.
In this video, we can see the differents accent of this language.
Finally, this is a short video of a comedian who talks about jamaican accent. Maybe it can seem a joke in bad taste, but we should pay attention to the way he changes the accent when he imitates to a jamaican person.
To conclude, Jamaica is an island located in the Caribbean Sea, whose official language is English but which has got another language that is Patois.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario