Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

[Tropicana]

I can't take credit for the title, it is from an article in The Gleaner a few weeks ago and I agree with it.

Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120829/cleisure/cleisure2.html

<span style="font-style: italic">When I entered high school, one of the languages I was required to learn was Latin. Why? I suspect because about 80 per cent of the entries in any English dictionary are borrowed, mainly from Latin. More than 60 per cent of English words have Greek or Latin roots. But we got rid of Latin.

Another subject I was required to learn was grammar - the system of a language. It is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves. About four decades ago, we parted company with that subject, too. Oh! All teachers spoke standard English only. Students were required to do the same, and I cannot remember many students failing exams.

The result of us divesting ourselves of all these critical subjects has the same effect as if we were building a structure - we leave out the steel because it is too expensive. We do no excavation because it takes time. We build on sand because it is easier. When the building shows signs of instability, we call in the experts who suggest we design more attractive windows. Now, it seems, the culprit for our poor results is standard English.

globally irrelevant?

Electronic technology has contracted the world into a global village. The 'Jamaican'-speaking population is only .041 per cent of the world's population. Who are we going to convince to learn Patois in order to do business with us? Our relevance in the world depends on our ability to supply a need and negotiate a reasonable price.

I remember two exam questions I got years ago:

1. If the desire of a company in selling convertible securities is delayed equity financing, would not it be wise to establish at the time the security is sold a 'set-up' in conversion price every few years?

2. Why do callable bonds typically have a higher yield to maturity than non-callable bonds, holding all other things constant? Is the yield differential likely to be constant over time?

Would the professor and the JTA president knock heads and translate those to 'Jamaican'? While they are at it, could they answer the questions in the same language?

I do not mean to say that the claims of these gentlemen concerning the ease with which one learns in one's native tongue and the difficulty in working with a second language is incorrect. They are dead right. This is because the language (standard English) isn't rooted in a web of associations and memories as the social variety.

(Patois) English - if it is so foreign - would not set off emotional resonances as would Patois. That's because the associative links are fewer and weaker. The solution, then, is to deepen the associative links through experience with the language, remembering that part of the solution is to be found in cognitive psychology and education.

The effects of this failure has had a devastating effect on education. The reading section of libraries has become a graveyard. Our children have stopped reading. This is the genesis of our problem.

May I suggest that we wade - backwards - through the sea of baseless excuses for the poor performance in the classroom.

All teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning. When teachers teach, students learn. When students learn, they feel no need to memorise. Why not reintroduce the teaching of grammar, the glue that holds the language together? A successful future depends on our ability to talk to the world - not to ourselves.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Glenn Tucker is an educator and sociologist.</span></span>

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

Here are some other POVs.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Interview: Professor Hubert Devonish, Advocate for Jamaican Patois as a Language</span>

Interview: Professor Hubert Devonish, Advocate for Jamaican Patois as a Language
Professor Hubert Devonish of the Universtiry of the West Indies has been one of the strongest advocates fighting for Jamaican Patois as a Language. He has created a writing and spelling system for Jamaican Patois. This month we have conversation with him about Jamaican Patois as a Language.

Professor Hubert Devonish of the Universtiry of the West Indies has been one of the strongest advocates fighting for Jamaican Patois as a Language. He has created a writing and spelling system for Jamaican Patois. This month we have conversation with him about Jamaican Patois as a Language.

Q: When did you come to the realization that Jamaican patois should be recognized as a separate language?

<span style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">I am not Jamaican but Guyanese.</span> </span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">See what I mean about foreigners butting into our affairs..how dare he.</div></div></div>

My language awareness started in Guyana in relation to Guyanese Creole or as we term it, Creolese. In the course of my High School education, I had two teachers from England and one from the US. Separately, they talked in class about the fact that Guyanese did not, in the course of normal interaction, speak English. That was a revelation to me. Then, a well known researcher of Guyanese folklore who ran a radio programme on Caribbean folklore and traditions, Wordsworth McAndrew, visited our school. That, coupled with the broadcast of Anansii stories on the radio, began to develop in me an awareness that Creolese was a separate language from English, with its own history and rules. Later on, I discovered that the people who study Caribbean Creole languages are linguists, and that the subject to study at the University of Guyana, to pursue that area was Linguistics. I eventually did a PhD in Linguistics, and ended up in Jamaica where the language situation is quite similar to that of Guyana. In addition, the Jamaican Language is quite similar to Guyanese Creolese, so the carry over to me taking a similar position on Jamaican to that which I had taken on Creolese in Guyana was easy.


Q: Who are your biggest supporter and the biggest detractors? Is it the intellects or politicians or the grassroots people?
Many people are ambivalent on the language question. And that spans the entire spectrum of social groups and classes. We did a National Language Attitude Survey of Jamaica in 2005. 1000 respondents were surveyed right across Jamaica.

The results show that about 70 per cent of the population would (i) support Jamaican being made an official language alongside English, (ii) support Jamaican and English being used alongside each other as languages of literacy teaching and of instruction in schools in Jamaica,, (iii) regard favourably the Minister of Finance doing a budget presentation in Parliament in Jamaican. This supports earlier research done around the year 2000, in which it was found that a significant majority of member of the Lower House of Parliament would vote in favour of a bill that would declare Jamaican an official language alongside English.
A key aspect of the Language Attitude Survey is that younger people are more favourable to Jamaican than older people, that urban people are more favourable than rural people, and that males are more favourable that females. The profile of the strongest opposition to the Jamaican Language is an older, rural female. The strongest supporter would be a younger, urban, male. Obviously, these represent extremes and the reality is that support and opposition come from all quarters and categories. The key point is that, in spite of the outpourings of the chattering classes in the mass media, the evidence points to a significant majority of the population in support.


Q: What do you say to the critics who say Patois is a slang that constantly changes?
I can present them with the oldest known text in the Jamaican Language, written around 1783. Any speaker of Jamaican in the 21st century can understand that text. So much for the nonsense about Jamaican constantly changing. So too does English. The 1960s slangs such as ‘groovy’, ‘sock it to me’, ‘right on’, are long dead and not understandable to people who were not around at that time. So, Jamaican too has slang, which comes and goes. The core of a language, however, is quite constant. ‘Pikni’ to mean ‘child’ and ‘nyam’ to mean ‘eat’ have been around for as long as the Jamaican language has been in existence. That would be about 350 years.


Q: What would Jamaican patois be call? Would it be Jamaican, Patwa or Patois?
Jamaican, in the same way that the language of Spain is Spanish, of Turkey, Turkish, Norway Norwegian, etc. Patois is the term originally used for regional dialects of French in France, and has been extended to described French-lexicon Creoles of the Caribbean, like St. Lucian. In fact, the spelling ‘Patwa’ has been used to describe St. Lucian French Creole. The most accurate label is, therefore, Jamaican.

More here: http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/pat...nguage-2.shtml

-------

Patois: the language of Jamaica

http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/Belcher-Timme.htm

and


Jamaican Patois and the Power of Language in Reggae Music

http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/herbold.html

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<span style="font-weight: bold">Patois in media negatively affecting education, says Barita head</span>

CHAIRMAN of Barita Investments Ltd, Rita Humphries-Lewin, believes that the use of patois in the media is negatively affecting the teaching of English language at the early childhood level.
Humphries-Lewin, whose company has contributed significantly to early childhood education through its Barita Education Foundation (BEF), is also calling for higher standards for entry to teachers' colleges as she says many trained teachers are unable to speak English properly.


&quot;We need to bring back grammar into the elementary schools, and I would also take this opportunity of speaking to the media and the advertising agencies of trying to infuse their ads and comments with... patois. We all know and can speak patois, but this bombardment of patois in the media is now requiring that translation from patois to English is becoming a major task in the basic schools,&quot; Humphries-Lewin said on Wednesday.
She was speaking at BEF's motivation breakfast for teachers at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
She also called on the Ministry of Education and the Early Childhood Commission to raise the entry requirements for teacher-training institutions.
Describing the oral language of some graduates as &quot;unbelievable&quot;, Humphries-Lewin said this has resulted in children being unable to pronounce words properly.
Education Minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites, who was guest speaker at the function, concurred that the standard of early childhood education needed to be lifted.
Noting that 200 more trained teachers would be placed in early childhood institutions by the end of October, Thwaites called for infant and basic school teachers to have equal pay with their counterparts at the higher levels of the education system.
&quot;It's a shame that we pay our early childhood teachers less than we do teachers at other levels of the profession. We need, in fact, the most advanced professionals at that level&quot;, he said.
However, he said the percentage of trained teachers at the early childhood level needed to be urgently raised from its present 20 per cent.
The minister reiterated his view that teachers should speak in English to children in the classroom. &quot;If children are exposed more to conversations in English they will use it better,&quot; he said.
Thwaites said Government was spending $1 billion more on early childhood education this year than last year.
From its launch in 2004, BEF has worked with 26 early childhood institutions, where over 10,000 children have been taught foundation skills in literacy and numeracy, 312 teachers have been trained, and parenting skills of more than 850 parents have been enhanced.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Pato...0#ixzz26pzPnTqa

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

Why Reinvent The Wheel On Patois?

I am totally supportive of Glenn Tucker's informed view in his guest column of Wednesday, August 31, titled 'Stop this 'teach Patois' nonsense!'

Our new society is not only dunce, it is also egotistical and very shallow in almost all forms. I remember quite well that<span style="font-size: 14pt"> <span style="font-weight: bold">to write a language, one needs to be able to standardise the basic pronunciation of words so as to spell them. This does not exist in Patois.</span></span>

Apparently, they believe our language greater than Latin, which, as Mr Tucker pointed out, is literally forgotten, not to mention his eminent point as to how to do business with the rest of the world if you cannot communicate with foreigners. So why reinvent the wheel?

I always thought we were an English language country, which also speaks a form of Patois, and not the other way around. Apparently, I was misled.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120831/letters/letters4.html

Never thought I would live to see the day when I agree with Mr. Seaga on anything. :dwk:

<span style="font-weight: bold">A Waste Of Time To Teach Patois - Seaga</span>

<span style="font-style: italic">In a renewed debate for recognition to be given to Jamaican Creole, Professor Hubert Devonish of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies has proposed that &quot;language rights&quot; should be recognised in the Charter of Rights. There have also been proposals for a Patois dictionary, a Patois Bible and for the language to be used as the main vehicle of communication at the primary level in schools.

However, former prime minister and chancellor of the University of Technology, Edward Seaga, weighing in on the issue, says it would be a waste of the country's educational resources to teach Patois in schools.

&quot;There is no standard way of spelling a particular word in Patois,&quot; Seaga said. &quot;If you want people to be able to talk to one another in Jamaica and outside of Jamaica, it does not make any sense.&quot;

He added: &quot;If you look at it, government and commercial papers are all in English. Newspapers are mostly in English with a few Patois articles and Patois quotations in English articles. Television and radio are mixed with English and Patois and popular culture such as songs, DJ lyrics and roots plays are mostly in Patois.&quot;

important to understand the language

Education advocate Dr Ralph Thompson says it is important for teachers, especially at the early-childhood level, to understand the language as many students speak Patois fluently, even though some are unable to read or write it.

&quot;If the early-childhood teachers speak standard English, of course first they have to be able to speak Patois as well because if you go into a classroom and can't speak Patois, you cannot connect to the kids,&quot; Thompson said.

Recently, Prime Minister Bruce Golding also weighed in on the debate. Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Kingsway High School, Golding said the debate about teaching Patois as a second language and translating the Bible into Patois signify an admission of failure. According to Golding, teaching Patois would be akin to saying, &quot;We have failed to impart our accepted language of English, so we are giving up. This one can't work, so let us find another one that can work.&quot;

Said Thompson: &quot;The good thing for children between zero and six is their ability to learn and grasp information quickly. The teacher can get their attention speaking in Patois, but reinforce English in the same sentence and you will see how quickly they understand.&quot;</span>

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110411/lead/lead4.html

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<span style="font-weight: bold">God Understands Patois</span>

On Sunday, Jo-Ann Richards, former missionary to West Africa and the Americas, proclaimed at the Boulevard Baptist Church, on the observance of Mission Sunday, that God understands Patois. Apparently, God speaks even in Patois. She read a passage of the Bible in Patois, spoke at times in Patois and sang in Patois. This is very important to her in the quest for the evangelisation of Jamaica.

Richards related a visit to a USA centre for world missions which had Jamaica listed, not as a Christian country, not as well evangelised but as an underevangelised place. This was a shocker to many, when popular folklore has it that Jamaica has the most churches per square mile. How could anyone claim that Jamaica is under-evangelised? It is because the criterion used is based on the availability of the Bible in the language of the people. And in that context, Jamaica has been found wanting.

The mother tongue of the majority is Patois, but most versions of the Bible are in English. Richards claimed that most Jamaicans think in Patois but it would be on the rare occasion that there would be a reading in Patois in a church. Even at Miss Lou's funeral, the service was in English! And she was an advocate for giving Patois respectability.

Patois is taking Great Britain by storm and the youths of England understand and use Patois. It is known that many Japanese who do not speak English understand the Patois in the reggae music. But so often Patois is ignored in church save and except when it is evangelistic time, or during open-air meetings.

This disregard for Patois started in colonial times. Part of the colonising strategy is to impose language, religion and values on the conquered. K.D. Smith, in a letter to the editor on August 13, requested: &quot;It would be great if Pastor Dick followed up with an analytical article about Eurocentrism and its influence on Christianity in Jamaica.&quot;

Eurocentrism in Christianity has led to us having mainly English hymns being sung, rarely the Negro spirituals and not many songs in Patois. It has led to English being the major means of communication, and oftentimes the images and illustrations are European or North American. In my book, The Cross and Machete, it states that the Native Baptists fought for the use of Patois in the Church and warned of the emphasis on classical education and English pronunciation.

Unknown tongue

The Native Baptists were not against the use of scholarship, except when its display became like an unknown tongue to the congregants. They believed it was futile for a preacher to speak in a language that the congregation did not know or understand. The Native Baptists defended the use of simple speech, which was not 'clothed in elegant language' and diction. They insisted on 'plain preaching'.

In the 1840s, Robert Graham, 'a free man of colour', came under the tutelage of Joshua Tinson, English Baptist missionary at Hanover Street, Kingston, and Graham insisted on plain speaking. Tinson had wished to &quot;instruct him in pronunciation and English grammar&quot;, but Graham refused because he &quot;believed Mr Tinson's way of pronouncing words was the way in England&quot; and he &quot;was sure his method was the Jamaica method, and the way best understood by the people&quot;.

He was correct, as later when Englishmen Thomas Harvey and William Brewin visited Jamaica in 1866, they concluded, &quot;Much of the literature which is so attractive to our population at home is neither interesting nor very intelligible to the people of Jamaica ... the topics, the allusions, the local colouring, are unfamiliar.&quot;

Since God understands Patois, and the majority of people understand and speak in Patois, it is time the church services reflect that reality.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110929/cleisure/cleisure2.html

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!


A tad harsh but he raises some important points:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Dick's Stance On Patois Absurd</span>

I am still trying to understand the purpose of Devon Dick's column, 'God understands Patois', published last Thursday.

No doubt, if God can understand the Bible, he should be able to grapple with Patois. But I suspect that Dick's column is an attempt to lift this bastardised form of English to a level accepted in our primary and high schools, universities and polite society.

This is an absurd notion, because Patois cannot be understood unless one has a basic understanding of English. In other words, the foundation is the English language. Why go through the cost of teaching Patois when it would be easier to teach English?

I doubt that many of the so-called intellectuals who foist this mindlessness on us would be happy to have their children speaking or writing Patois in school or in any sophisticated environment. Anyone who attempts to read the Patois Bible will find it confusing, a chore to read, and lacking any literary beauty.

Patois should not be formalised in an already semi-literate society.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20111003/letters/letters5.html

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<span style="font-weight: bold">No to teaching of patois</span>

I am certainly flabbergasted to hear so many people lamenting the poor showing of students in the recent CSEC English language examinations. What do these people expect? If the children are not taught Standard English, how can they be expected to perform well?

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lette...#ixzz26q9mrGce
I was not surprised about the English examination results, because it would appear that the emphasis these days is on teaching, reading and writing patois.
On learning of the exam results, Minister of Education Ronnie Thwaites was livid to the point of summoning experts to explain the precipitous fall in the English and maths results, when compared to the previous year.
But I cannot understand how he could expect better examination results in English when Standard English is being de-emphasised and patois is being glorified. When renowned people like Hubert Devonish PhD, Carolyn Cooper PhD and Peta-Ann Baker PhD all advocate the teaching of patois, what do you expect the students to do? They are confused and believe that focusing on English is a waste of their time.
English grammar, the structual foundation of the English language, which teaches about past tense, present tense, singular verb, plural verb, proper nouns and common nouns, etc - in short, the foundation of good essay writing and good public speaking, has been absent from the school curriculum for many years now. How then do you expect the English exam results to improve?
Minister Thwaites, if the children have not performed well, it means that they have not learnt and if they have not learnt, then the teachers have not taught.
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the mix - a number of so-called influential people are advocating the use of patois by the students while at the same time the country, including the minister of education, is expecting very good performances in the English exams. No, no, this just cannot work - these two positions are incompatible.
In summary, the grades for the English examinations will get better only when:
* Qualified English teachers - even if you have to import them - start to teach Standard English to the students.
* English grammar, the basis and foundation of the English language, is re-introduced into the curriculum.
*The nonsense about teaching, speaking and writing patois in the classroom is put aside.
All this, Minister, should go a far way in helping to solve the problem of poor English exam results.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lette...#ixzz26q9Uqed8

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!



MY POV:

Patois is a rich and colourful dialect...not a language. It is fabulous and for casual conversation, music, theatre, poetry, etc. It should in on way shape or form become the official language of Jamaica and by no means should instruction in schools be in patois. So many of our children are struggling when they migrate to Canada, the USA, and the UK because of their poor mastery of English.

Here is a prime example:

<span style="font-weight: bold">He is doing <span style="font-size: 14pt">much</span> better now </span>.....good for him. He is still struggling somewhat to express himself in English despite the fact that he has been in Canada since the age of 15 but this is the clearest I have heard him.

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<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eWYvjvzhar4"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eWYvjvzhar4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

For years he <span style="font-weight: bold">really struggled</span> and had a very hard time expressing himself.

This is the reason he did not get a lot of endorsements but he did get some.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B59oQETne8Y"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B59oQETne8Y" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

Why should be doom our people to being a permanent part of the underclass in those societies because they are behind the 8 ball from the get go and unable to easily adapt, get the education and skills they require to be competitive.

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

Bump!

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

This is also interesting

All this brings me to the latest fashion which includes a fixation, in some quarters, to incorporate Jamaican Patois (pronounced 'Patwa') into our formal education as our 'first language'. Attempts to have Patois taught as our official language having failed miserably, desperate voices are talking about teaching English as a second language only. Give me a minute to get up off the floor upon which I'm rolling with laughter.
Let's get something straight. Jamaican Patois isn't a 'language', properly so called. 'Language', an English word, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country or area'.

Our Patois is derived from Twi, a language spoken by the Ashanti tribe and still spoken in much of Ghana. It's a language which is very difficult to write, because, like our Patois, its meaning is more dependent on tone than structure. Legend has it that the slaves deliberately blended Twi and English to produce Patois in order to be able to speak, yet not be deciphered outside their own circle. Slave masters were unable to understand. At least, so I get it from Miss Lou. I wasn't present at the time.


common sayings

Twi features the 'serial verb' and, hence, is the foundation of common sayings like, 'How it a go, go?'; 'I'll come play'; or the delightfully intricate 'Carry go bring come'. Neither Twi nor Patois was ever Jamaica's 'first language'. Jamaica was a Spanish colony (Spanish was its first language); then an English colony (English, its first language) and, since Independence, nothing has changed in that regard.

Patois, a 'language' deliberately invented to ensure that others couldn't understand it, still has that effect on most persons outside Jamaica and many within. It has no consistent spelling, grammar or construction rules. Its vocabulary isn't contained in any accredited dictionary. As a 'language', we all learn it by ear and hone our skills by practice among a circle of Patois-speaking friends.

Save for quotation, most of us don't try to write in Patois. Some English-speaking intellectuals do produce awkward, affected Patois essays whose meaning is a struggle to grasp. Generic use is by the spoken word only. That eliminates it as anybody's 'first language'.

Most English words are derived from Latin. English grammar and structure are Germanic. Both Latin and German are very precise languages most susceptible to the written form. So, for education purposes, we have two distinctly different 'languages'. One derived from the tone-dependent African Twi, and the other, a Germanic language with an extensive Latin-based vocabulary structured to emphasise discipline, precision and form. Perhaps somebody more scholarly than I can explain how on God's earth one can be the basis of an education in the other.

global village

Don't get me wrong. Both (Patois and English) are realities that should be equally recognised. However, it's a fact of life during this mortal toil that English dominates the communication skills of almost every single nation in the global village, regardless of other 'first languages'. Furthermore, educators worldwide have learned (through trial and error) that language immersion is the way to teach 'foreign' languages. The best way to learn Spanish is to live in Spain, where, generally, you should hear no other language. The best Spanish teachers today speak no other language in class.

So, even if we regard Patois as our 'first language' and English as our 'second', Patois has no place in the teaching of English. The twain ought never to meet. To learn English, we must be immersed in English from we enter the classroom until we're sufficiently proficient to carry it off as a 'first language' when communicating outside our village.

It's time to stop the silly squabbling about which language to teach in our schools. We have much bigger and more immediate problems, including in schools.
This is not to say Patois has no place in our schools. It has a significant place as a subset of a history or social studies curriculum called 'culture'. It must be taught in schools as what it is - part of our indigenous culture. No need to reinvent history and declare Patois our 'first language'.

More: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...us/focus5.html

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

English is a standard language with set grammar, sentence structure, etc. that can be taurngt. So is Twi. Patois is:

patoisplural of pat·ois (Noun)
Noun:
The dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country.
The jargon or informal speech used by a particular social group.

English and Twi hav both had an influence on Jamaican patois. If it were a language, it would not be called a dialect or patois....same way that cockney is not a language.

[blugiant]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">English is a standard language with set grammar, sentence structure, etc. that can be taurngt. So is Twi. Patois is:

patoisplural of pat·ois (Noun)
Noun:
The dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country.
The jargon or informal speech used by a particular social group.

English and Twi hav both had an influence on Jamaican patois. If it were a language, it would not be called a dialect or patois....same way that cockney is not a language. </div></div>

diss mekk mii laff

dat y mii didd stay wey fram de tread

yu usinn oyinbo dictionary fe define patwah ann yu do see de issue widd dat. yu usinn oyinbo tandard fe judge blakk peep language as substandard. oyinbo use language as a tool aff colonialliezation

Miss Lou put it so eloquently: &quot;Like my Aunty Roachy seh, she vex anytime she hear people a come style fi wi Jamaican language as 'corruption' a di English language. Yu ever hear anyting go so? Aunty Roachy seh she no know weh mek dem no call di English language 'corruption' a di Norman French an di Greek an di Latin weh dem seh English 'derived from'. Unu hear di word? English 'derive' but Jamaica 'corrupt'. No, massa, notn no go so. We not 'corrupt' an dem 'derive.' We derive to. Jamaica derive.&quot;

[blugiant]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<span style="font-weight: bold">Willie Lynch letter: The Making of a Slave</span>


This speech was said to have been delivered by Willie Lynch on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia in 1712. Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to teach his methods to slave owners there.

[beginning of the Willie Lynch Letter]

Greetings,

Gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies, where I have experimented with some of the newest, and still the oldest, methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I HAVE A FULL PROOF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING YOUR BLACK SLAVES. I guarantee every one of you that, if installed correctly, IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I HAVE OUTLINED A NUMBER OF DIFFERENCES AMONG THE SLAVES; AND I TAKE THESE DIFFERENCES AND MAKE THEM BIGGER. I USE FEAR, DISTRUST AND ENVY FOR CONTROL PURPOSES. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is “AGE,” but it’s there only because it starts with an “a.” The second is “COLOR” or shade. There is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZES OF PLANTATIONS, STATUS on plantations, ATTITUDE of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST AND ENVY STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS. Don’t forget, you must pitch the OLD black male vs. the YOUNG black male, and the YOUNG black male against the OLD black male. You must use the DARK skin slaves vs. the LIGHT skin slaves, and the LIGHT skin slaves vs. the DARK skin slaves. You must use the FEMALE vs. the MALE, and the MALE vs. the FEMALE. You must also have white servants and overseers [who] distrust all Blacks. But it is NECESSARY THAT YOUR SLAVES TRUST AND DEPEND ON US. THEY MUST LOVE, RESPECT AND TRUST ONLY US. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. IF USED INTENSELY FOR ONE YEAR, THE SLAVES THEMSELVES WILL REMAIN PERPETUALLY DISTRUSTFUL. Thank you gentlemen.”

LET’S MAKE A SLAVE

It was the interest and business of slave holders to study human nature, and the slave nature in particular, with a view to practical results. I and many of them attained astonishing proficiency in this direction. They had to deal not with earth, wood and stone, but with men and, by every regard, they had for their own safety and prosperity they needed to know the material on which they were to work, conscious of the injustice and wrong they were every hour perpetuating and knowing what they themselves would do. Were they the victims of such wrongs? They were constantly looking for the first signs of the dreaded retribution. They watched therefore with skilled and practiced eyes, and learned to read with great accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the slave, through his sable face. Unusual sobriety, apparent abstractions, sullenness and indifference indeed, any mood out of the common was afforded ground for suspicion and inquiry. Frederick Douglas LET’S MAKE A SLAVE is a study of the scientific process of man-breaking and slave-making. It describes the rationale and results of the Anglo Saxons’ ideas and methods of insuring the master/slave relationship. LET’S MAKE A SLAVE “The Original and Development of a Social Being Called ‘The Negro.’” Let us make a slave. What do we need? First of all, we need a black [censored] man, a pregnant [censored] woman and her baby [censored] boy. Second, we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more sustaining factors. What we do with horses is that we break them from one form of life to another; that is, we reduce them from their natural state in nature. Whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency status, so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure.

CARDINAL PRINCIPLES FOR MAKING A NEGRO

For fear that our future generations may not understand the principles of breaking both of the beast together, the [censored] and the horse. We understand that short range planning economics results in periodic economic chaos; so that to avoid turmoil in the economy, it requires us to have breadth and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill sharp perceptions. We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive economic planning. Both horse and [censored] [are] no good to the economy in the wild or natural state. Both must be BROKEN and TIED together for orderly production. For orderly future, special and particular attention must be paid to the FEMALE and the YOUNGEST offspring. Both must be CROSSBRED to produce a variety and division of labor. Both must be taught to respond to a peculiar new LANGUAGE. Psychological and physical instruction of CONTAINMENT must be created for both. We hold the six cardinal principles as truth to be self-evident, based upon following the discourse concerning the economics of breaking and tying the horse and the [censored] together, all inclusive of the six principles laid down above. NOTE: Neither principle alone will suffice for good economics. All principles must be employed for orderly good of the nation. Accordingly, both a wild horse and a wild or natur[al] [censored] is dangerous even if captured, for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom and, in doing so, might kill you in your sleep. You cannot rest. They sleep while you are awake, and are awake while you are asleep. They are DANGEROUS near the family house and it requires too much labor to watch them away from the house. Above all, you cannot get them to work in this natural state. Hence, both the horse and the [censored] must be broken; that is breaking them from one form of mental life to another. KEEP THE BODY, TAKE THE MIND! In other words, break the will to resist. Now the breaking process is the same for both the horse and the [censored], only slightly varying in degrees. But, as we said before, there is an art in long range economic planning. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR EYE AND THOUGHTS ON THE FEMALE and the OFFSPRING of the horse and the [censored]. A brief discourse in offspring development will shed light on the key to sound economic principles. Pay little attention to the generation of original breaking, but CONCENTRATE ON FUTURE GENERATION. Therefore, if you break the FEMALE mother, she will BREAK the offspring in its early years of development; and when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you, for her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process. For example, take the case of the wild stud horse, a female horse and an already infant horse and compare the breaking process with two captured [censored] males in their natural state, a pregnant [censored] woman with her infant offspring. Take the stud horse, break him for limited containment. Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle, whereas you or anybody can ride her in her comfort. Breed the mare and the stud until you have the desired offspring. Then, you can turn the stud to freedom until you need him again. Train the female horse whereby she will eat out of your hand, and she will in turn train the infant horse to eat out of your hand, also. When it comes to breaking the uncivilized [censored], use the same process, but vary the degree and step up the pressure, so as to do a complete reversal of the mind. Take the meanest and most restless [censored], strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining male [censored], the female, and the [censored] infant, tar and feather him, tie each leg to a different horse faced in opposite directions, set him afire and beat both horses to pull him apart in front of the remaining [censored]. The next step is to take a bullwhip and beat the remaining [censored] males to the point of death, in front of the female and the infant. Don’t kill him, but PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN HIM, for he can be useful for future breeding.

THE BREAKING PROCESS OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN

Take the female and run a series of tests on her to see if she will submit to your desires willingly. Test her in every way, because she is the most important factor for good economics. If she shows any sign of resistance in submitting completely to your will, do not hesitate to use the bullwhip on her to extract that last bit of [b----] out of her. Take care not to kill her, for in doing so, you spoil good economics. When in complete submission, she will train her offsprings in the early years to submit to labor when they become of age. Understanding is the best thing. Therefore, we shall go deeper into this area of the subject matter concerning what we have produced here in this breaking process of the female [censored]. We have reversed the relationship; in her natural uncivilized state, she would have a strong dependency on the uncivilized [censored] male, and she would have a limited protective tendency toward her independent male offspring and would raise male offsprings to be dependent like her. Nature had provided for this type of balance. We reversed nature by burning and pulling a civilized [censored] apart and bullwhipping the other to the point of death, all in her presence. By her being left alone, unprotected, with the MALE IMAGE DESTROYED, the ordeal caused her to move from her psychologically dependent state to a frozen, independent state. In this frozen, psychological state of independence, she will raise her MALE and female offspring in reversed roles. For FEAR of the young male’s life, she will psychologically train him to be MENTALLY WEAK and DEPENDENT, but PHYSICALLY STRONG. Because she has become psychologically independent, she will train her FEMALE offsprings to be psychologically independent. What have you got? You’ve got the [censored] WOMAN OUT FRONT AND THE [censored] MAN BEHIND AND SCARED. This is a perfect situation of sound sleep and economics. Before the breaking process, we had to be alertly on guard at all times. Now, we can sleep soundly, for out of frozen fear his woman stands guard for us. He cannot get past her early slave-molding process. He is a good tool, now ready to be tied to the horse at a tender age. By the time a [censored] boy reaches the age of sixteen, he is soundly broken in and ready for a long life of sound and efficient work and the reproduction of a unit of good labor force. Continually through the breaking of uncivilized savage [censored], by throwing the [censored] female savage into a frozen psychological state of independence, by killing the protective male image, and by creating a submissive dependent mind of the [censored] male slave, we have created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever, unless a phenomenon occurs and re-shifts the position of the male and female slaves. We show what we mean by example. Take the case of the two economic slave units and examine them close.

THE NEGRO MARRIAGE

We breed two [censored] males with two [censored] females. Then, we take the [censored] male away from them and keep them moving and working. Say one [censored] female bears a [censored] female and the other bears a [censored] male; both [censored] females—being without influence of the [censored] male image, frozen with a independent psychology—will raise their offspring into reverse positions. The one with the female offspring will teach her to be like herself, independent and negotiable (we negotiate with her, through her, by her, negotiates her at will). The one with the [censored] male offspring, she being frozen subconscious fear for his life, will raise him to be mentally dependent and weak, but physically strong; in other words, body over mind. Now, in a few years when these two offsprings become fertile for early reproduction, we will mate and breed them and continue the cycle. That is good, sound and long range comprehensive planning.

WARNING: POSSIBLE INTERLOPING NEGATIVES

Earlier, we talked about the non-economic good of the horse and the [censored] in their wild or natural state; we talked out the principle of breaking and tying them together for orderly production. Furthermore, we talked about paying particular attention to the female savage and her offspring for orderly future planning, then more recently we stated that, by reversing the positions of the male and female savages, we created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever unless a phenomenon occurred and reshifts positions of the male and female savages. Our experts warned us about the possibility of this phenomenon occurring, for they say that the mind has a strong drive to correct and re-correct itself over a period of time if it can touch some substantial original historical base; and they advised us that the best way to deal with the phenomenon is to shave off the brute’s mental history and create a multiplicity of phenomena of illusions, so that each illusion will twirl in its own orbit, something similar to floating balls in a vacuum. This creation of multiplicity of phenomena of illusions entails the principle of crossbreeding the [censored] and the horse as we stated above, the purpose of which is to create a diversified division of labor; thereby creating different levels of labor and different values of illusion at each connecting level of labor. The results of which is the severance of the points of original beginnings for each sphere illusion. Since we feel that the subject matter may get more complicated as we proceed in laying down our economic plan concerning the purpose, reason and effect of crossbreeding horses and [censored], we shall lay down the following definition terms for future generations. Orbiting cycle means a thing turning in a given path. Axis means upon which or around which a body turns. Phenomenon means something beyond ordinary conception and inspires awe and wonder. Multiplicity means a great number. Means a globe. Crossbreeding a horse means taking a horse and breeding it with an [censored] and you get a dumb, backward, [censored] long-headed mule that is not reproductive nor productive by itself. Crossbreeding [censored] mean taking so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many [censored] women as possible, varying the drops by the various tone that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another circle of color appears as you desire. What this means is this: Put the [censored] and the horse in a breeding pot, mix some asses and some good white blood and what do you get? You got a multiplicity of colors of [censored] backward, unusual [censored], running, tied to backward [censored] long-headed mules, the one productive of itself, the other sterile. (The one constant, the other dying, we keep the [censored] constant for we may replace the mules for another tool) both mule and [censored] tied to each other, neither knowing where the other came from and neither productive for itself, nor without each other.

CONTROLLED LANGUAGE

Crossbreeding completed, for further severance from their original beginning, WE MUST COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE THE MOTHER TONGUE of both the new [censored] and the new mule, and institute a new language that involves the new life’s work of both. You know language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of a people. The more a foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture. For example, if you take a slave, if you teach him all about your language, he will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can’t fool him any longer, and BEING A FOOL IS ONE OF THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF ANY INCIDENTS TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SLAVERY SYSTEM. For example, if you told a slave that he must perform in getting out “our crops” and he knows the language well, he would know that “our crops” didn’t mean “our crops” and the slavery system would break down, for he would relate on the basis of what “our crops” really meant. So you have to be careful in setting up the new language; for the slaves would soon be in your house, talking to you as “man to man” and that is death to our economic system. In addition, the definitions of words or terms are only a minute part of the process. Values are created and transported by communication through the body of the language. A total society has many interconnected value systems. All the values in the society have bridges of language to connect them for orderly working in the society. But for these language bridges, these many value systems would sharply clash and cause internal strife or civil war, the degree of the conflict being determined by the magnitude of the issues or relative opposing strength in whatever form. For example, if you put a slave in a hog pen and train him to live there and incorporate in him to value it as a way of life completely, the biggest problem you would have out of him is that he would worry you about provisions to keep the hog pen clean, or the same hog pen and make a slip and incorporate something in his language whereby he comes to value a house more than he does his hog pen, you got a problem. He will soon be in your house.Additional Note: “Henty Berry, speaking in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, described the situation as it existed in many parts of the South at this time: “We have, as far as possible, closed every avenue by which light may enter their (the slaves) minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would be complete; they would then be on a level with the beasts of the field and we should be safe. I am not certain that we would not do it, if we could find out the process and that on the plea of necessity.” From Brown America, The story of a New Race by Edwin R. Embree. 1931 The Viking Press.

[blugiant]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

CONTROLLED LANGUAGE

Crossbreeding completed, for further severance from their original beginning, WE MUST COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE THE MOTHER TONGUE of both the new [censored] and the new mule, and institute a new language that involves the new life’s work of both. You know language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of a people. The more a foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture. For example, if you take a slave, if you teach him all about your language, he will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can’t fool him any longer, and BEING A FOOL IS ONE OF THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF ANY INCIDENTS TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SLAVERY SYSTEM. For example, if you told a slave that he must perform in getting out “our crops” and he knows the language well, he would know that “our crops” didn’t mean “our crops” and the slavery system would break down, for he would relate on the basis of what “our crops” really meant. So you have to be careful in setting up the new language; for the slaves would soon be in your house, talking to you as “man to man” and that is death to our economic system. In addition, the definitions of words or terms are only a minute part of the process. Values are created and transported by communication through the body of the language. A total society has many interconnected value systems. All the values in the society have bridges of language to connect them for orderly working in the society. But for these language bridges, these many value systems would sharply clash and cause internal strife or civil war, the degree of the conflict being determined by the magnitude of the issues or relative opposing strength in whatever form. For example, if you put a slave in a hog pen and train him to live there and incorporate in him to value it as a way of life completely, the biggest problem you would have out of him is that he would worry you about provisions to keep the hog pen clean, or the same hog pen and make a slip and incorporate something in his language whereby he comes to value a house more than he does his hog pen, you got a problem. He will soon be in your house.Additional Note: “Henty Berry, speaking in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, described the situation as it existed in many parts of the South at this time: “We have, as far as possible, closed every avenue by which light may enter their (the slaves) minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would be complete; they would then be on a level with the beasts of the field and we should be safe. I am not certain that we would not do it, if we could find out the process and that on the plea of necessity.”

[Tropicana]

Re: Stop This 'Teach Patois' Nonsense!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yu usinn oyinbo dictionary fe define patwah ann yu do see de issue widd dat. </div></div>

Hello that is the definition of the word patois. Jamaican patois is not the only patois or dialect in the world.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> yu usinn oyinbo tandard fe judge blakk peep language as substandard. oyinbo use language as a tool aff colonialliezation </div></div>

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 14pt">HELL</span></span>O, cockney is also considered to be a dialect and, last I checked, it is spoken mostly by White folks.


What your LONG quote has to do with the definition of the word patois is beyond me.

Red my lips...Jamaican patois is an English dialect with heavy influences from Twi and some influences from Spanish. Some of the English words have Irish pronunciation. The sentence structure is largely Twi influenced.