David Salmon | We don’t want your Patois, UWI

Proponents who argue that Jamaican Creole should be taught in schools have often cited reasons such as the preservation of culture, or that this approach can assist students with learning the English language. However, an element of the debate that has been ignored is the treatment of Creole by academics at The University of the West Indies (UWI).

Before a grave mistake is made, we must ask ourselves whether Creole, as currently proposed by the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU), is useful for our nation’s students. Unfortunately, previous efforts to standardise the language have produced an abstruse system that most Jamaicans are unable to appreciate.

Peter Espeut captured this criticism when he posited that Miss Lou’s best efforts to write her poems was not enough for the literati class at the UWI. In his July column (in The Gleaner), he suggested that these academics “have applied their esoteric notation to our idiom and have come up with an academically sound (pun intended) phonetic notation which standard English readers and speakers find difficult and inelegant”.

Evidence of this observation is seen with the poor reception of the Patois Bible. Since its launch in 2012, it has failed to capture the imagination of Jamaican churchgoers. Ten years later, congregants are even less willing to adopt this translation than they are enthusiastic about abortion.

Yet, rather than examining Espeut’s assertions, learned academics, such as Annie Kitchin, have resorted to questioning his credentials. In her column, Kitchin stated, “ How, exactly, this qualifies him to pass judgement on the internationally recognised work of the linguists at UWI, I cannot imagine..” In her summation, she suggested that since Espeut is “uninformed and unqualified” to talk about Jamaican Creole; it is best that he remains quiet to conceal his “ignorance”.

The absence of critical analysis from this rebuttal was extremely disappointing. Based on Kitchin’s logic, even Louise Bennett-Coverley would not be able to withstand scrutiny, as she did not have the requisite linguistic certifications to advise these ‘experts’.

DIVORCE FROM ENGLISH

What is lacking from the discussion is an inquiry as to why the JLU’s version of Jamaican Creole has not caught on among the population. The reason for this is not due to often-peddled nonsense about being beholden to ‘mental slavery’.

The truth is that by pursuing a linguistically pure language, the JLU forgets that most Jamaicans have been exposed to English, whether it be its phonology, grammar or vocabulary. While standardised Jamaican Creole is based on work done in 1961 by Jamaica-born linguist Frederick Cassidy. His system relies on the usage of conventions found in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent the sounds found in Creole.

Page 8 of the JLU’s 2009 workbook, Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way, states, “It is a method which represents the sounds of the language as faithfully as possible, without relying on the spelling conventions of English. It is an approach to spelling Jamaican which treats it as a language in its own right rather than as a form of English.”

Here lies the problem.

In an attempt to create a distinct writing system by divorcing Creole from English, academics have produced an awkward arrangement with which most people are not accustomed. For example, ‘today’ in English becomes ‘tide’ in Creole, ‘teeth’ becomes ‘tiit’, and ‘cake’ becomes ‘kiek’.

By comparison, Louise Bennett translates the word ‘secret’ as ‘seekrit’, “sorry” becomes ‘sarry’, and ‘soldier’ becomes ‘solja’. Given the experiences of most Jamaicans, Miss Lou used English conventions whenever she wrote Creole.

To illustrate the challenges of understanding standardised Jamaican Creole, I asked my 15-year-old brother to read the Patois Bible. The result was a mess! He was so fixated on trying to pronounce the words that the meaning of the passage was completely lost. He concisely voiced his frustration when he said, “When you compare the two, no one wants to hear the Patois Bible when you have Miss Lou.”

Imagine, Patois originated in Jamaica and Jamaicans are struggling to read it. For a language to be adopted, it needs to be accepted across the population as a legitimate form of expression. Simply having the UWI’s stamp of approval is not sufficient to guarantee the public’s acceptance of Cassidy’s method.

BETTER STANDARDISATION STRATEGY

For students to appreciate the JLU’s writing system, they should ideally learn the International Phonetic Alphabet, as it is used to represent sounds. Although, using a derivative of the IPA is inevitably problematic, as distinctions are identified in the system that would not be present in the written form of said language. The JLU’s system is also not intuitive by nature. Only those who have learnt it will understand it. Hence, awareness is limited to the small academic community cloistered at Mona.

If we truly want Jamaican Creole to be accepted, I would suggest that these academics examine the process to standardise the east African language, Swahili. In a 1999 paper, Dictionaries and the Standardization of Spelling in Swahili, James Mdee revealed that efforts to standardise the language focused on using the Roman alphabet to write the language and represent sounds.

Vowels are pronounced in a similar manner to Italian, while English is used for consonants. For this reason, Swahili is enunciated in the same way as it appears in written text. Based on its history, there is no push to divorce the language from English as is seen in Jamaica. Locally, if English letters were used to represent phonetic sounds, it is likely you will produce a language that better reflects the writing of Miss Lou, rather than what has been produced to date.

Adopting this approach does not ignore the contributions previously made by Cassidy, as his work can be used to assist with pronunciations and vocabulary. Though his writing system should not be the basis of written Creole. His method was not inscribed by the finger of God on stone tablets. So consequently, criticism can be levied against its adoption in the school system.

TEACHING PATOIS VS TEACHING IN PATOIS

At an awards ceremony in August, Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams revealed that her ministry will be looking at how to incorporate Jamaican Creole in the school system. Teaching Patois is different than teaching in Patois. Many students are already exposed to the latter in the classroom.

Therefore, if the objective is to teach Creole, the ministry can start with reintroducing Miss Lou’s poetry. Inspiration can also be taken from the CAPE Communication Studies Syllabus, as it does a satisfactory job in examining the differences in grammar, vocabulary and phonology between Caribbean standard English and Creole.

Students acquire knowledge of shared words that have different meanings, such as ‘miserable’ and ‘ignorant’. They learn to recognise that in Creole, ‘th’ sounds are replaced with ‘d’ at the beginning of words. So ‘them’ in English becomes ‘dem’ in Creole. Learning these demarcations is far more practical and helpful in assisting students to make the transition to English.

The syllabus also highlights that some characteristics of Creole are carried over into standard English. Acknowledging this relationship is the reason Miss Lou’s work resonates to this day. Words that sound almost the same in English retained their spelling in her poems, while rules such as replacing ‘th’ with ‘d’, as seen in words like ‘dat’, were respected.

Thus, if the Jamaican Language Unit is leading the roll-out of teaching Jamaican Creole, then no thank you, I will pass. I am fully aware that my suggestions may fall on deaf ears to the academics of the UWI. Nevertheless, I believe Miss Lou’s poem titled Jamaican Patois is most appropriate in these circumstances:

“Is wha Miss Liza she dah-form.

Dah-gwan like foreigner!

Because her sister husband get

One job up a Mona!”

David Salmon is a graduate of The University of the West Indies with a background in public policy and management. Please send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and davidsalmon@live.com.