Last Updated: 2020-06-23
Background
Language Family: Creole / English based / Atlantic / Western
- Also referred to as Jamaican Patois, Patwa, or Patwah, Jamaican Creole is spoken in Jamaica, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, other Caribbean islands, and throughout the Caribbean coast of Central America.
Phonology
Consonants
- There is some debate about the status of /h/ in Jamaican Creole. It appears that “[h] may be phonetic in Eastern varieties” but “is phonemic in the Western varieties” (Harry 2006, 126). I have chosen to include it below.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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Affricates
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tʃ dʒ
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Fricatives
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f v
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s z
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ʃ
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ŋ
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Approximants
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w
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ɹ l
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. Both alveolar approximants are voiced, but the one on the right is lateral.
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Vowels
- Jamaican Creole makes a vowel length distinction (/e/ and /o/ do not have long counterparts). Long vowels are indicated by repeated graphemes (Harry 2006, 128).
- Jamaican Creole has diphthongs. The only diphthong that is not transparent orthographically is /au/, which is transcribed ⟨ou⟩ (ibid.).
- There is some uncertainty regarding the concept of contrastive tone in Jamaican Creole. Lawton (1968) argues that tone is contrastive, whereas Parsard (n.d.) explains that speakers of creole languages do not make use of it (p. 23; p. 7). Due to this uncertainty, I will proceed with the language not accounting for tone.
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Diphthongs
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/ai/, /ua/, /ia/, /au/
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Alphabet
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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d
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/d/
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e
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/e/
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ɡ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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j
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/dʒ/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/ɹ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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v
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/v/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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z
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/z/
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Digraph
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ch
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/tʃ/
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ng
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/ŋ/
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sh
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/ʃ/
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Lenition Rules
- /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are pronounced lenis (specifically as implosives) word-initially (Harry 2006, 127).
Misc. Rules
- Obstruents become palatalized preceding high vowels /i/ and /u/ (Harry 2006, 127).
- Vowels nasalize preceding nasal consonants (Harry 2006, 261).
References
Harry, Otelemate G. 2006. “Jamaican Creole.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (1). Cambridge University Press: 125–31.
Lawton, David L. 1968. “The Implications of Tone for Jamaican Creole.” Anthropological Linguistics 10 (6): 22–26.
Parsard, Kyle Davin. n.d. “Re-Evaluating Relexification: The Case of Jamaican Creole.”