Most words in Jamaican patois, like other English Caribbean patois, are English words filtered through a distinct phonetic system with fewer vowels and different consonant sounds. Patois is written ...

As Jamaica moves ahead with plans to cut ties to the British monarchy, omentum is building to make Patois Jamaica’s official language, on par with English. KINGSTON, Jamaica — Walk into any government ...

Kingsley Ben-Adir can currently be seen portraying late Reggae icon Bob Marley in the biopic One Love. Now that production is over and the cast is promoting the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed film, ...

Growing up as a first-generation West Indian, it’s always tickled me (but made me proud) to see my culture in mainstream spaces, especially if it didn’t include Bob Marley, weed or Jerk Chicken. And ...

We may not think of Jamaica as a bilingual society, but local bloggers are assuring us that it is. English and Patois—or Patwa, as it's often written—are widely spoken, but the Jamaican mother ...

What is Jamaica’s true “official language”? Does it have two? Should it acquire a “second language” and if so, what should it be? These questions have had Jamaican commentators tied up in knots for ...

Everytime the importance of patois is raised there is an automatic groundswell of resistance from the refiner populace, as if the encouragement of the Jamaican creole somehow invades or infects the ...

I recently heard Japan-based bilingualism author Adam Beck explain one of his reasons for raising his children bilingual: “I wanted them to know me, at the deepest level…and I felt like if I was going ...

Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable. When Karen Roach first heard the Bible in Jamaican Patois, an English-based ...