The Jamaican Creole Language: Its History and Linguistic Distinctions
Number of pages:
8
ABSTRACT:
This is an 8 page paper discussing the Jamaican Creole language. The Jamaican Creole language, also known as Western Caribbean English, has been a unique language since the beginning of the 19th century although is it still only officially linguistically classified along with Creole and Pidgin languages as “language isolate, unclassified” with the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas. Because of its unique elements which differentiate it from Standard English in the areas of linguistic phonology, morphology, semantics and pragmatics, linguists believe that it should not be considered a “dialect” but should be reclassified as a “nation-language”. Not only spoken in Jamaica, Jamaican Creole is also spoken in Columbia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Jamaican is also influencing cultures and societies around the globe as large communities of West Indians who reside in countries such as Canada and the United States not only bring their language to the culture but also elements of their music, mannerism and lifestyle which are being adopted by neighboring communities. The Jamaican language is considered an excellent example of the many languages which are participating in the “Latinization” of the English language and are important in the linguistic study of the evolution of language. Includes an outline.
Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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