Tatu Mirela

Varieties of English
2nd year, 1st semester

Jamaican English

1. The verb – tenses

Habitual situations and progressive events can all be described as having non-punctual
aspect.

Jamaican English Standard English Comments

1. Mi Ø lov im I love her (now) None past marker
Meaning:present,ha
bitual
2. Mi Ø a run I ran None past marker
Meaning:past
3. Mi ben lov im I loved her (b)en /did marker to
refer to a past action
4. Mi ben ron I had run (before some past event or (b)en/did marker for
action) a past-before-past
action
5. Him lucky we never It’s lucky we didn’t eat it too, for we Completive aspect
nyam him too,for we did had already cooked is signalled by done
done cook already which may occur not
only pre-verbally but
also after the verb
phrase

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Tatu Mirela
Varieties of English
2nd year, 1st semester
2. Agreement
Jamaican English
1. This wan swiit im.
2. Im no lov dem ting?
3. Negation
Jamaican English
1. She don’t fight woman; She doesn’t (didn’t) fight women; she
a pure man she fight
2. Up to now, Spangler Until now( this day) ,Spangler has not
don’t come back in di
area
3. Im no lov dem ting?
4. Shut unu ai,na!
Standard English Comments
This one pleases her. Person and number
are not marked on
finite verbs
Present-tense
vb.with third-person
singular subjects
never shows
inflection with ‘-
s’,and the vb. Is
perfectly regular.
Subject pronouns
are not
distinguished for
case,and auxiliary
inversion does not
occur(2)
Doesn’t she like those things? There is no
distinction between
simple past and
present perfect verb
forms and neither of
them requires an
auxiliary or pre-
verbal marker.
Standard English Comments
Don’t is typically
only fights( fought) men non-past or
imperfectiv
Don’t may occur
come back into the area. any time-reference,
including perfect
Doesn’t she like those things? The simple and
most common
structure:Invariant
negator no( na)
before the vb
Shut your eyes, won’t you? No also occur as
interrogative tag
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Tatu Mirela
Varieties of English
2nd year, 1st semester
4. The noun – plural marking
Jamaican English
1. Aal yu bwai-dem!
2. Afta a no iivn rimemba di
nuots-dem agen.
3. Fi–dem pieren mait muor
richa dan mai pieren,so
dem mait av muor beta
fasilitiz-dem.
4. Frenz an a uol-dem,
neva falo frenz an a uol.
5. Some a di woman dem is
single woman
Standard English Comments
All you boys! Animate nouns may
be followed by the
suffix -dem
I don’t even remember the Post-nominal affix –
(musical) notes any more. dem on definite
nouns+ -s may co-
occur
Their parents might be richer than -s is more closely
mine, so they might have more attached to the
better facilities noun,while –dem
may attach to the
right edge of the
noun-phrase.
Friends in general,never follow
friends in general.
Some of rhe women are single
women.

6. Prepositions
Jamaican English Standard English Comments
1. Me go a de airport. I’ m going to the aeroport Preposition ’a’
instead of to
2. Me lef’ Jamaica an’ come I left Jamaica and I came to
ah England. England
3. Why should I let you ina Why sdould I let you in my house?
me house?

Exercises
1. Match the sentences written in Jamaican English with their translation in Standard
English.

Waa gwaan? I am old now.

Wi de ina London. The man went for a swim.

Mi ole nau. What is going on?

Ti man did a suim We are from London.

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Tatu Mirela
Varieties of English
2nd year, 1st semester

2. The clause “ She sey she name is Mervalin” is ambiguous. Choose the translation in
Standard English which you consider to be correct and explain your decision.

a. She is called Mervalin

b. Her name is Mervalin.

Bibliography

1. Bailey, Beryl, L (1966). Jamaican Creole Syntax. Cambridge University Press, pp. 32

2. Dagmar Deuber and Lars Hinrichs, Dynamics of orthographic standardization in

Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin, World Englishes 26, No. 1 (February 2007),
pp. 22–47

3. Gibson, Kean (1988), "The Habitual Category in Guyanese and Jamaican

Creoles", American Speech, pp. 60

4. Ramazani, Jahan; Ellmann, and Robert O'Clair, eds., Richard (2003). The Norton
Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Third Edition. 2: Contemporary
Poetry. Norton.

5. Kortmann Bernd, Upton Clive; Varieties of English – The British Isles, Mouton
Textbook. pp.466-467
6. pdfs.semanticscholar.org/88cb/50160d14b0933c446cf9b2e9045737a663f1.pdf
Jamaican Creole morphology and syntax Peter L. Patrick