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Jamaican Patois Word Creation

Word creation in Jamaican patois is derived from words derived from old pronunciation, letter addition, alteration, removal, assimilation, replacement, reduction and vocalization, unique use of letter, reduction of consonant groups and present participle, sound loss and replacement, voicing, nasalization, metathesis, diphthongizing, emphasis, over-correction, iteration and word adopted from many languages.

Definition

Syllable: A unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme

Phoneme:One of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language

Words Derived From Old Pronunciation

From the early period certain words were developed. Example: Certaint-Saatin, Ears-Aise and Eye-Hai or Yai

Letter Addition

Letters “h, I, u, y and w” are added to many words to form new words (Table 1).

There is occasional intrusion of letters “ d, g, i, n, k, r, t and w”. Letter “n” intrudes present participles or nouns (Table 2).

Letter “y” sometimes intrudes between leters “f, k, m, p, s” and letter “u”. It also intrudes in the word “news” and between letter “g” and letter (Table 3).

Appearance of letter “e”

Appearance of letter “e” Letter “e” appears in few instances: Another-Aneda, Brother-Breder and Cover-Kieba

Alteration

Certain words are altered. Example: Itch-Hiich, In-Iin and Into-Iina

Letter “h, t and l” are remove from some word. Example: Hot-At, It-I and Will-Wi

Letter “l, b, tion and age” are assimilated. Example: Already: Ar-ready, Goblet-Gaglit, Nation-Nieshan and Language-Languij

Letter “r” loss and retention

Jamaican patois loses “r” at all levels before consonants and at the ends of words.

1.Before Consonants. Example: Beard-Bied, Bird-Bod, Board-Buod and Burn-Born

2.At the end of the word.Example: Better-Beta and Fire-Fia

Retention of “r”

Letter “r” is retained in many words. Example: Bear-Bier, Chair-Chier, Clear-Klier and Dear-Dier

Single letters replacements

There are 10 single letters which are replaced in Jamaican patois. It includes all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and six consonants(c, d, r, t, w, y)(Table 4a).

More than one letters replacements

Reduction of Consonant Groups and Present Participle

Letter “s” is lost at the beginning of words which have “p”,” t”, or “k” as the second letter (Table 5). Present Participle “-ing” is reduced to “-in”

Words of “GIVE”, “GOING”, “WHERE” and “THERE” are reduced to “GI” , “GWINE”,“WE” and “DE” respectively. The sentences “DO IT” and “GO ON” are reduced to “DWIIT” and “GWAAN”

Loss of the second sound

Jamaican patois words undergo many transformations due to sound changes. If the second sound in any group of words is “p, t, k, d, g, s, or z”, then sound and everything following it in the same syllable is regularly lost. Example: Sand-San and Collect-Kalek

Word sound Lost

Certain sounds are lost to produce a different word: Example: About-Bout, Amend-Mend, Along- Lang, Away-Weh, Enough-Nof and Reflector (Lamp)-Flecta.

Sound Replacement

Replacements are done for stop, middle, fricative and lax sounds (Table 6).

Voicing

Voicing changes many word. Example: Could-Kud, Coob-Kub, Cook-Kuk, Days-Diez, Foot-Fut, Ways-Wiez, Would-Wud.

Letter “t” is voiced between vowels until it almost becomes “d”. Example: Potato-Pedita

Letter Vocalization

Letter “d” vocalization

Letter “d” is vocalized out of the word “Meddle” to become “Mel”. Definition of ‘Meddle” is in the vocabulary.

Letter “b” vocalization

Letter “b” is vocalized out of the word “Somebody”. After vocalization “S’m’ady” then “Smady”.

Nasalization

This is the the utterance of sounds modulated by the nasal resonators. Letters “ng” follows letters “ou”. Example: Ground-Grong, Round-Roung.

Metathesis

This is a linguistic process of transposition (the act of reversing the order) of sounds or syllables within a word or words within a sentence.Example: Ask-Aks, Film-Flim,and Sandals-Slandaz.

Diphthongizing

In Jamaican patois diphthongs are created from simple vowel. These diphthongs are used to create many words Example: Bay-Bie, Bone-Buon, Life-Laif and About-Bout.

Failure of Diphthongizing

Sometimes a vowel in Jamaican patois can’t be diphthongized. Example: Snout-Snoot, Spout-Spuut, Couch-Cooch and Pouch-Pooch..

Emphasis

Vowels are changed to show emphasis. This is known as a dialect feature. Example: Little-Leetle, Ugly-Huogly is used instead of the usual “Hogli” and Scrape-Kraap instead of Kriep.

There is also the word “Excessively” which mean “Kyaan-don” and “Really” and “Truly” which means “Fitruu”

Over-Correction

This occurs when someone tries to speak English. Example: Lung-Lounz

Iteration

Many word are formed by iteration in Jaimaican patwa Example: Idiot-Mumu and Whistle-Fi-fi

Detail Explanation is found in the book title “A GUIDE TO LEARNING JAMAICAN PATOIS: FROM BASIC TO ADVANCE”.

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