Alphabet-The First Step to Learning Jamaican Patois

The standard Jamaican patois alphabet has 24 letters with letters “Q” and “X” missing.

Table 1: Jamaican patois alphabet
Letters (English-Patois)
A B C D E F G H
A BI CHI DI E EF GI HECH
I J K L M N O P
I JEI KEI EL EM N O PI
R S T U V W Y Z
AR ES TI U VI DABLJU WAI ZEI

Vowels, Diphthongs and Consonants

Jamaican patois has 5 short vowels and 3 long vowels, 5 nasal vowels and 4 diphthongs as illustrated in tables below.

Short Vowels

The short vowels are letters “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” and “u” (Table 2).

Table 2: Short vowels and some English and Jamaican patois words
Vowels Words
Short English Patois
I Brick, Kick, Middle, Pick, Sick Brik, Kik, Migl,Pik, Sik
E Bell, Dead,Tell, Well Bel, Ded,Tel, Wel
A Band Ban
O Book, Cook Buk, Kuk
U But, Cut Bot, Kot

Long Vowels

The long vowels are letters “aa”, “ii”, and “uu” (Table 3).

Table 3: Long vowels and some English and Jamaican patois words
Vowels Words
Long English Patois
II Beat, Tea, Treat Biit, Tii, Triit
AA Ball, Bath, Off, Plant, North Baal, Baat, Aaf,Naat, Plaan
UU Boot, Shoot, Wood Buut, Shuut, Wuud

Nasal Vowels

Jamaican patois has five nasal vowels as in table 4 below:-

Table 4: Nasal vowels and some English and Jamaican patois words
Vowels Words
Nasal English Patois
IHN Isn’t it Iihn
AA They Dehn
AHN And, Can’t, From, Want Anh, Frahn,Kyaahn, Wanhn
OHN Don’t, On, Some, , Won’t Douhn, Panh, Sohn, Wuohn
UHN Soon Suhn

Diphthong

There a four diphthongs in Jamaican patois(Table 5).

Table 5: Diphthongs and some English and Jamaican patois words
Diphthongs Words
English Patois
IE Cake, Late, Pay, Spare, Status, Stay, Table Kiek, Liet, Pie, Spier, Stietos, Stie, Tiebl
UO Boat, Coat, Grow, How, Know Buot, Kuot, Gruo, Nuo
AI Bile,Bite,Life,Pile, Nice Bail,Bait,Laif, Pail, Nais
OU About, Mouth, South Bout, Kou, Mout, Sout
Consonants

Letter “C” in Jamaican patois is “CH”. Other consonants include “NG”, “SH” and “ZH”

Table 6: Consonants and some English and Jamaican patois words
Consonants
English Patois English Patois English Patois English Patois
B Baby Biebi H Hole Huol NG Bring Bring V Voice Vais
D Dirty Dotti J Joj Judge P Pay Pie W Wild Wail
CH Church Choch H Hole Huol K Knife Naif R Rain Rien
F Foot Fut L Lear Laan S Same Siem Z Zoo Zuu
G Go Guh M Mercy Masi SH Same Siem ZH Verson Vorzhan
N Nose Nouz T Third Toerd
Dadereen,2024