
Pardon My Language
"kool runnins?", "level vibes?" "ole tight?", "Everyt'ing irie?" If you find yourself wondering what language is spoken in Jamaica, you are not alone and can be forgiven. Although English is the official language, you might have a tough time trying to decipher any conversation taking place between Jamaicans. Jamaicans use many expressions that are rooted in centuries of folk and cultural traditions to communicate ideas and thoughts concisely, yet clearly. And to further complicate things, many of the words used by Jamaicans are not English but African. So what language does Jamaican speak? Well Jamaicans most often speak a colourful and complex form English called patois (pronounced pat-wah).
Patois is a mixture of broken English and the languages of West Africa, together with some Rastafarian idioms. When the British colonized Jamaica, they brought slaves from West Africa. Although the slaves were forced to learn the language of their colonial masters, they found it difficult and awkward to express themselves clearly using the old British language. As a result, they used English when talking with their master but maintained and used their African dialects to talk among themselves. And just in case the "boss man" might understand their dialects, the slaves often times used folks proverbs as a means of communicating without allowing their masters to understand.
In learning the English language the slaves found it rather difficult to pronounce the sound "th" at the beginning of words and even worse for "th" at the end. After all, these sounds were not in their mother tongue. They had similar problem with the letter "h" at the beginning of any words. As a result these sounds were dropped from patois and replaced with sounds more native to the African dialects. For example, the word "the" is changed to "de", "teeth" becomes "teet", "this" is now "dis", and "thing" become "ting". Another difficulty they had with English was the long sounds of many words and set out to shorten many of them. For example "there" became "de", "here" became "ya", "come" was change to "com", "make" became "mek" and so on. These are in fact the hallmark of Jamaican patois.
The slaves also had many problems with the English grammar. In particular, they were confused by the pronouns a they pertained to gender, person, singular, and plural and tried to simplify them. As a result, "His" and "her" became simple "him" or rather "im". The first person "I" was changed to "mi" Jamaican for "me" and the plural pronoun "they" became "dem" - Jamaican for "them". In fact, "dem" is use to pluralize everything. "The people" is referred to as "dem people" or "de people dem" and "The children" becomes "de pickney dem" - pickney being the African word for children - and so on.
Another the trademark of Jamaican patois is the ability to modify an expression with certain words to express degree of severity or anger. For example, if you are upset with someone you might "beat im up" but if you are mad with him you would "bruck im up" or even worse, "bruck up im claute". To "mess up" is a small mistake compare to when you "sheg up". "Dat bwoy" is a man you have a minor issue with. "Dat rass bwoy" is a man you don't like, but "dat rass claute bwoy" is a man you really hate. By the way, "bwoy" is Jamaican for boy. Therefore when you call a man "bwoy" you are having some issues with him.
There are several words that are used to colour Jamaican patois in very expressive ways. One of those words is "rass". Originating from the colonial plantations, "rass" which means one's ass or backside, is one of those versatile words that can have different meanings depending on the context and how it is used. For example, "yu dutty rass" is very derogatory, but "dat gal pretty no rass" is very flattering. If you are surprise to see someone you could exclaim "kiss mi rass!", but if you are mad with him you could tell him to "kiss mi rass". "Rass" is very often used as an adjective to emphasize size or quality as in "im have a rass ouse pon de ill" - meaning, he has a very big house upon the hill. If "rass" is qualified by the word "claute", as in "dat rass claute bwoy", it is a clear indication that the speaker is very "mad" about something.
Almost everything in Jamaica has been influence by the Rastafarian culture and the local language is no exception. In the Rastafarian lingo, "I" is used instead of "me", so a Rasta man refers to himself as "I man". In fact, Rastas preface many words with "I" and thus you have words like "ital" (organic food), "irie" (alright), and "idren" (bredren or brothers).
So the next time you hear a Jamaican says "wa a gwaan" or "a wey de rass yu a sey?", just remember that what you are hearing is part of the long history and rich culture of Jamaica.