This page was intentionally written in standard English.
Multiple articles that differ in subject spelling only, such as Mansarat and Manstarat, are most impractical; they would permanently need a babysitter to keep them synchronized. Also, a lot of search engines decrease your pages rank if they discover duplicated content. Use redirects instead.
A policy is needed about which spelling the articles use, and which are relegated to redirects, keeping in mind the preservation of the post-creole continuum.
To clarify spelling choices, we make distinctions between acrolect > mesolect > basilect (J1-J2-J3) in the language continuum. For this Wikipedia project we are opting to use the basilectal register. The orthography follows that devised by Professor Frederic Cassidy (en), adopted by the University of the West Indies (en) Jamaican Language Unit, and with minor modifications suggested on this website. You are encouraged to adhere to this standard and avoid the use of "eye dialect" or chaka-chaka. However, if you prefer another orthography, feel free to use it as long as you add a template at the top of the page that states something like, "This page uses a different orthography," and specify the register you are using i.e. acrolect, mesolect, or basilect.
Jamaican Spelling Guide
[change up | change up di source]All letters should represent a sound so there should be no silent or unnecessary letters such as double letters except where applicable as in chrangga, stronger.
- Short vowels
- a as in 'hat', hurt
- e as in 'bet', bet
- i as in 'big', big
- o as on 'ton', ton, turn
- u as in 'put', put
- Long vowels
- aa as in 'baal', ball, bawl
- ee as in 'abee', taunt pronounced a-bay (not common)
- ii as in 'liin', lean
- uu as in 'kuul', cool
- Diphthongs
- ai as in 'nait', night
- au as in 'baul', bowl
- ya as in 'gyal', girl
- ie as in 'giet', gate
- yo as in 'pyo', pure
- ou as in 'kou', cow
- uo as in 'duo', door, though
- yu as in 'pyuk', puke
- Triphthongs
(y and w act as glides or semi-vowels)
- aiya as in 'faiya', fire
- yaa as in 'gyaad', guard
- yuu as in 'byuuti' beauty
- owa as in 'powa', power
- owi as in 'vowil', vowel
- Consonants
- b, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, y, z
- Consonant Combinations
- ch (as in 'choch' or 'church' ) ,
- sh (as in 'shat' or 'shoot' ) ,
- ng (as in 'chingk' or 'bedbug') ,
- zh as in 'vorzhan' or 'version')
- h is initial aspirate and hn is a marker for nasalized vowels, as in 'ahn' (and) pronounced like French an.
Frequently used Jamaican words and phrases
[change up | change up di source]- a - a, at, is/are, there is/are
- aal - aal
- ahn - and
- ak - act
- aneda - another
- askaadn - according to
- aks - ask
- baan - born
- bai - buy, by
- beks -angry, upset, vexed
- biit - beat
- bitwiin - between
- bot - but
- brait - bright
- choch - church
- chrabl - travel
- chrai - try
- chuu - through, true
- daag - dog
- dehn - they
- dem - them, plural marker
- demde - those
- demya - these
- den - then
- di - the
- die - day
- don - done, finished, remote past marker
- du - do, please
- duo - door, though
- ebri - every
- ehn - past marker, also behn, wehn
- enibadi - anybody
- fain - find, fine
- fieba - look like, resemble
- fos - first
- gaan - gone
- gien - gain
- gruot - growth
- gyaadn - garden
- hana - honor
- hier - air
- howa - hour
- ier - hair, year
- iez - ear
- ina - in, into, inner
- jork - jerk
- joj - judge
- jonjo - fungus
- jrap - drop, fall
- juk - poke
- kaa - because
- kya - care
- kyahn - can
- kip - keep
- komiin laka - appears as if
- kyaahn - cannot
- kyaar - car
- laas - last, lose, lost
- lebl - level
- liet - late
- maita - may, might
- mosi - must be, maybe
- neba - never
- niem - name
- nof - many, plenty
- nuo - know, no
- nyuu - new
- ousomeba - however
- paas - pass, past, path
- sens - sense
- skuul - school
- smadi - person, someone
- sumaal - small
- tap - stop, top
- tek - take
- ton - become, ton, turn
- uoba - over
- uu - who
- wahn - a, an, indefinite aticle
- we - that, which
- we/wich paat - where
- wentaim - whenever
- wol - world
- wuoliip - a lot, a large amount
- ya(so) - here
- yunaitid - united
- yuut - young person, youth
Aspirate
[change up | change up di source]- These are often context dependent so it is recommended that they not be used in creating titles of categories or pages. When occuring in text, usually following a word ending with a vowel, they should be italicized, thus: haatikl, hexkiep, hAislan.
- As a general rule, where the lexifier word begins with a vowel, an initial H is prepended, thus hapl (apple), harinj (orange), helifant (elephant), hiivlin (evening), especially when the preceding word ends with a vowel.
- In most cases where the lexifier has a silent initial H, it is pronounced in the Jamaican equivalent, thus: howa (hour), hanis (honest), hana (honour).
- The converse holds that initial H in the lexifier is dropped, thus: at (hot), elp (help), ebm (heaven), otel (hotel).
- haam (arm) and aam (harm) are illustrative.