Understanding Jamaican Patois: An Introduction to Afro-Jamaican Grammar

Adams would have been better off transcribing the sounds in some standard phonetic alphabet, or, to make the book more accessible, in the same mix that Jamaicans do. Ef yuh ah goh mek it up, yuh haffi come betta dan dat!

Don't categorize us Jamaicans
I haven't read this book, let me just get that out of the way.

However, as a degree-holder in linguistics and a Jamaican, I must say that the title alone emphasizes what must be an ineptness by the author to understand the Jamaican dynamic. There are no "Afro-Jamaicans." We are Jamaicans. Period. Some of us are black, some are white, some are Chinese, Syrian, etc. My mother is white, born in Sav-La-Mar, Jamaica, her grand-parents were from Ireland and Wales. She grew up speaking Jamaican Creole but that doesn't make her "Afro-Jamaican." Not all Jamaicans use this dialect, and not all users of this dialect are black.

Furthermore, although the Jamaicans loosely define their language as "patois", that is not what their language is called. A patois is defined as "uneducated speech" or "a dialect different from but based upon the main spoken language of the region." What the Jamaicans speak is certainly not uneducated speech, and any qualified linguist knows that every dialect and every language is complex and complete in its own way. Linguistically speaking, what we speak in certain areas of Jamaican can be called a creole, which is one of the final stages of a birth of a new language created from the pidgin of other languages.

Maybe the author utilized the words "afro" and "patois" to reach a broader audience, but at the expense of perpetuating false perceptions of the Jamaican people and language?

Jamaican patois and its Sweet 'n Swarthy Speakers
This is a fine guide to the grammar of Jamaican patois. Adams outlines sentence structure and verb forms with the expertise of someone who has lived and taught in "Jam-dung" for much her life. As a strange and unfamiliar language, it is interesting to learn just for its own sake. But for practical purposes, this is an excellent tool for anyone who wishes to cement lasting bonds with the finest collection of women on the planet: Jamaican women. The guide to verb particles is invaluable, as this can certainly be the greatest obstacle to any white-skinned fool who tries to learn patois. Vocabulary and local idioms are ever-changing in Jamaica, so the reader quickly finds that some of Adams' Glossary entries are either outdated, rarely used, or both. For a greater understanding of vocabulary, you'll need to have sustained contact with Jamaican folk and their speech habits. On the whole, there has been no greater pleasure in my life than my adventures with this unusual tongue. A white man's self-education in Jamaican patois often seems like chasing the wind, but the rewards are such that the work is well worth it in the end. So for anyone who relishes dark eyes, corn-rows, and long tawny legs, I suggest that you read Adams' book on the remarkable language of these equally remarkable women, and just sit back and watch with glee as you gather into your greedy arms the payoff of studying Jamaican patois.

A Basic Introduction
For those interested in language ceolization, Understanding Jamaican Patois is a good description of the basics of the creole spoken in Jamaica. A relatively short book, it spends a good deal of time talking about orthography, which is always a problem/concern with a primarily oral language. This discussion is interestingly illustrated in the reading selection (a childhood tale by Llewellen "Dada" Adams) at the end of the book, which is written in facing pages in the two orthographies (one mixes phonetic and standard spellings; the second is purely phonetic). Ending the book is an all-too-short appendix comparing some similar features in Haitian and Jamaican patois.