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Jamaica’s linguistic identity crisis

by Annie Paul

In Jamaica, English reigns supreme on the patios of the privileged while patois Patwa rules the street. Touting itself as an English-speaking polity (the only official language of the country), disregard for Patwa, the first language of many Jamaicans, is virtually built into the official institutions of society.

 

This has resulted in the relegation of monolingual Patwa speakers to second-class citizenship, because their language (and, by extension, their culture) is considered an unsuitable subject for school curricula or for polite or official discourse, thus, like the proverbial man without a state, Creole or Patwa speakers are, in effect, rendered personae non grata at the official level.

Further reading here in The Gleaner, Wednesday June 22, 2016

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