'Jamaican' is not a language

[Tyehimba]

Jamaican' is not a language
published: Wednesday | November 26, 2003

By Chester Burgess, Contributor

WE MUST first of all understand what is meant by language, as we shall have to differentiate between LANGUAGE on one hand, and A LANGUAGE on the other. The present purpose is to demonstrate that what is known as Jamaican is LANGUAGE but not A LANGUAGE.

In simple terms language is a means of communication among animals, including mankind. We know of the communication, audible and inaudible, that takes place between such as: mother dog and pup; hen and chicken; lioness and cub; chimpanzee and offspring; through personal experience and acquired knowledge.

We know, too, that the deaf and the dumb and the blind among us are able to have understandings with others. And this is what language is all about, and Jamaicans use language.

SPANISH

When we speak of a language we're considering a specialised form of language. The Spanish use language, yes, but they have a language called Spanish ­ same for such as the French and the Turks. A language in this context refers to a means of communication involving rules for the formation and transmission of expression, oral and written, and capable of analysis in terms of orthography, etymology and syntax. The three cases cited above fully qualify.

HUMAN HISTORY

Now conquest has been a fact of life all through human history, and in each case understanding has had to be reached between conqueror and conquered, often in a context of difference of language. But many a conquered country could be described as having a language: cases such as when the Babylon-ians conquered the Israelites, the Romans took over Greece, the British acquired India and the Italians seized Ethiopia, cases in which the native peoples had not merely language but in each case a language of their own. And, significantly, those languages that have persisted through the centuries and are the ones in which such as constitutions, laws and national anthems are written and uttered today.

This does not apply in the case of Jamaica. When the British came here in the 17th century the native Tainos were extinct. The few Africans that the Spanish had brought to Jamaica were more or less escapees into the wilds, to be known as Maroons, a word derived from Spanish. They were not native Jamaicans, using a native Jamaican tongue. It was now up to the British to provide Jamaica with natives, slaves from Africa. These used language, for the reason that they were human, but they did not bring a language to Jamaica. And so the stage was set for the emergence of what was to be called Jamaican, the so-called language of Jamaicans. The slaves on arrival in Jamaica had a prime concern ­ survival. This was to be dependent on the ability to exchange words with their masters.

AFRICAN LINGO

The latter wasn't interested in African lingo, of which we knew nothing anyhow, so the strain fell on the slave to adjust, learning words from the master and from resident slaves. There was no native language for him to adjust to ­ his destiny depended on his capacity to communicate in English with the English-speaking master. Even the free Maroons had no choice but to adjust to the demand for English. They speak English today.

The English-speaking master had to be satisfied with being able to understand the slave's English, however mispronounced it was, and perhaps co-operated through resort to mispronunciation himself. For the pre-emancipation freedmen there was no national educational structure to benefit from, and such was to be the case for the ex-slaves in the early emancipation period. Then into their midst came the imported indentured Indians and Chinese, many if not most of whom knew no English, and they derived their English mainly from the freed men and their descendants.

TOLERANCE

This state of affairs apparently presented no serious problem for the ruling classes, and in time their tolerance was to become acceptance and they themselves found no fault in resorting to what was to become known as Jamaican. However, Jamaican, which was not a native language, is nothing other than what has happened to English from the British conquest of the island in 1655 until this day in 2003 A.D.

What has happened? The following sounds have become identified with Jamaican: Aata, bway, dis, dat, faadah, guh, maddah, ouse, im, pumkin, sinting, wat, wen, yout ­ this list is endless. Added to this raw mispronunciation there has developed a propensity toward emphasising the more rearward syllables of words: a few instances ­ committee, comment, commerce, industry. Then there has been the collapse of grammar, that fully recognised features of the degradation of English language ­ no illustrative detail necessary ­ which has characterised the process leading to the emergence of Jamaican. And what is to be emphasised is that degraded English is used and resorted to at every single level of society in Jamaica, and the handful of people who lament this have as much chance of seeing change as Jack and Jill had climbing that hill in search of water.

CARTOON CONDITION

A Jamaican travelling abroad today, if asked at the frontier what is his or her language, will unhesitatingly say English, not Jamaican, for such doesn't exist and whatever exists isn't marketable.

Now, recently, a very eminent Jamaican was reported as saying that English is a foreign language in Jamaica. Did that Jamaican intend us to subscribe to the notion that our national language is other than English? Are we to continue in the cartoon condition of having a national language, Jamaican, while our constitution, laws and national anthem are written and observed in a foreign language? Perhaps the eminent Jamaican might care to suggest to the British that God Save The Queen be in Polish or Hebrew or what have you. Are we to have and/or should we expect or demand corrective action some time in the future?

In the meantime, I shall insist on the reality that Jamaican is not a language, it is merely degenerate English, that English is the national language of Jamaica, and that since this is so an effort could be made towards making Jamaicans sound more like English-speaking people, less like Homo Erectus and more like Homo Sapiens.

Chester Burgess is an honorary director of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20031126/news/news9.html

[Tyehimba]

This article was highlted to me and i thought it very interesting. The question arises: is dialect in this casse Jamaican dialect inferior or 'degenerate' as the article put forths. The English language in itself is not a pure language, but constitutes other languages that was added, and evolved over time. Louis Bennet (Miss Lou), the famous Jamaican poet and others have done a lot of work in this area to have the usage of dialect accepted and recognised in Jamaica.

[Kingston]

Ras_tyehimba...

I see the Jamaican dialect or any dialect for that matter,  as a branch on the tree that is the english language and as such it is not inferior.  It is simply an offshoot of an entity.  

Does this make sense?

Matter of fact, I then would continue to see english as a tree within a field of languages where, as you said, it has borrowed itselft from other trees in the field.

As such, I will say that Jamaican is not a language..it is simply a dialect within english but definetly, it is not degenerate english.

What is meant by stating, there should be an effort to make Jamaicans sound more like english speaking ones?  Is this English as in the British? or Enlgish as a language?  If it is the latter of the two I would not know where to begin as there are a multitude of regional dialects within this language.  A Canadian from Newfoundland would have trouble understanding what an Austrailian from Perth was saying just as much as an American from New Orleans (Nawlans) would have difficulty understanding a Jamaican from Port Antonio.  This flow works both ways.

Why is the author singling out Jamaica?  

This same argument could be used when speaking on the language spoken in Belize.  It is, officially, an english speaking country but one can hear spanglish (enlgish spanish) or english based creole as well as the influences from the dutch population.

To me, dialect is.  And it is niether good nor bad.

Nice find Tyehimba...

..Kingston..