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Re: Majority favour patois as an official language of Ja
For most people in Jamaica Patois is the first language heard inside the womb. It is the first language most children in Jamaica learn at their mother's knees, it is the first language learned in the first 3 years of of their lives before going basic school, where for most of them they will recieve their first exposure to Jamaican English.
I try to stay away from the debate as far as whether Patois is a "language" or "dialect" or "broken English "or whatever. The fact of the matter is 99.9 % of Jmaicans speak it whether they are formally educated or not.
I think the problem lies in the attitude towards patois. Why is it that so many Jamaicans still find it revolting when they hear patois spoken in public. Where did all this negative attitude come from.
I remember the days when people bristled when BOB Marley spoke patois in his foreign press interviews. People were so embarassed with the way he spoke and would be quick to distance themselves.Yet we are willing to hear patois in our plays, Pantomines, local movies, jokes, comedies, poems, folk songs but when it is spoken in public in the genral public then the eyebrows raise up. Why this obvious dissociation? Could it be that it is rooted in some kind of post-colonial inferiority complex still lingering on in our society?
Slavery has long ended so we really dont have to be on our guard all the time to make sure we are speaking proper English in front of our white colonial masters. I somehow can see slave mothers scolding thier little ones and saying,"Stan up strait an' ansa proper to massa!" Those massas are dead and gone so its ok to speak a little patois now and again, although it seems their ghosts still linger on.
We are 99.9 % black and we all know and speak patois.It should be appreciated and celebrated. We should not be ashamed or be embarassed by it. There has to be a serious coming out of the closet when people still scorn a language that is imprinted in the brain of 99.9 % of the population. This self-denial must be overcomed. Patois is an intergral part of our self-expression that makes us a unique people.
No one in Jammica can deny that we express some things better emotionally in patois than in so called proper English. I'm sure people can find coutless examples. If something were to fall and hit someone in their head would most people in Jamaica say Oh God! or would it be more like Lawd Gad mi dead!
And it doesn't matter if you are the Prime Minister or the farmer in the remotest part of the island, some things are just better expressed in patois. If the Prime Minister is going to give a speech at the UN of course he is going to speak proper Jamaican English but if he's relaxing at home knocking some dominoes and drinking some Red stripe beer I'm sure he's going to speak some patois. Its time to bring Patois out of her closet.
Although I disagree with making her the official language of the country I dont see how it would hurt if we all just relax and treat her fairly in our very vibrant and unique culture.
BlackStar: Added paragraph spacing for legibility.
For most people in Jamaica Patois is the first language heard inside the womb. It is the first language most children in Jamaica learn at their mother's knees, it is the first language learned in the first 3 years of of their lives before going basic school, where for most of them they will recieve their first exposure to Jamaican English.
I try to stay away from the debate as far as whether Patois is a "language" or "dialect" or "broken English "or whatever. The fact of the matter is 99.9 % of Jmaicans speak it whether they are formally educated or not.
I think the problem lies in the attitude towards patois. Why is it that so many Jamaicans still find it revolting when they hear patois spoken in public. Where did all this negative attitude come from.
I remember the days when people bristled when BOB Marley spoke patois in his foreign press interviews. People were so embarassed with the way he spoke and would be quick to distance themselves.Yet we are willing to hear patois in our plays, Pantomines, local movies, jokes, comedies, poems, folk songs but when it is spoken in public in the genral public then the eyebrows raise up. Why this obvious dissociation? Could it be that it is rooted in some kind of post-colonial inferiority complex still lingering on in our society?
Slavery has long ended so we really dont have to be on our guard all the time to make sure we are speaking proper English in front of our white colonial masters. I somehow can see slave mothers scolding thier little ones and saying,"Stan up strait an' ansa proper to massa!" Those massas are dead and gone so its ok to speak a little patois now and again, although it seems their ghosts still linger on.
We are 99.9 % black and we all know and speak patois.It should be appreciated and celebrated. We should not be ashamed or be embarassed by it. There has to be a serious coming out of the closet when people still scorn a language that is imprinted in the brain of 99.9 % of the population. This self-denial must be overcomed. Patois is an intergral part of our self-expression that makes us a unique people.
No one in Jammica can deny that we express some things better emotionally in patois than in so called proper English. I'm sure people can find coutless examples. If something were to fall and hit someone in their head would most people in Jamaica say Oh God! or would it be more like Lawd Gad mi dead!
And it doesn't matter if you are the Prime Minister or the farmer in the remotest part of the island, some things are just better expressed in patois. If the Prime Minister is going to give a speech at the UN of course he is going to speak proper Jamaican English but if he's relaxing at home knocking some dominoes and drinking some Red stripe beer I'm sure he's going to speak some patois. Its time to bring Patois out of her closet.
Although I disagree with making her the official language of the country I dont see how it would hurt if we all just relax and treat her fairly in our very vibrant and unique culture.
BlackStar: Added paragraph spacing for legibility.
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