As Jamaica continues to loosen its ties with the British monarchy, momentum is building to make Patois the country's official language alongside English. The proposal was recently floated by the ...

Most words in Jamaican patois, like other English Caribbean patois, are English words filtered through a distinct phonetic system with fewer vowels and different consonant sounds. Patois is written ...

KINGSTON, JamaicaKINGSTON, Jamaica — When English teacher Faith Linton first proposed translating the Bible into Jamaica’s patois tongue in the late 1950s, most people who heard the idea shook their ...

We may not think of Jamaica as a bilingual society, but local bloggers are assuring us that it is. English and Patois—or Patwa, as it's often written—are widely spoken, but the Jamaican mother ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Walk into any government office, courtroom or classroom in Jamaica, and you’ll be expected to speak the official language, English. But venture into the street, tune into a radio ...

The battle lines have softened somewhat, but there is still substantial opposition to patois in the pulpit. Critics say it will dilute Scripture and undermine the already weak hold many poor Jamaicans ...

In Toronto, Patwa is spoken by 70% of the black population living there, due to historical immigration from Jamaica. "It's like having a badge of Creole identity in the city and people love that," she ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The predominantly black country of Jamaica is embracing a controversial Super Bowl ad that depicts a white office worker from the U.S. Midwest feigning the Caribbean island's ...

Diversity matters, even when it comes in the form of a doll. With research that shows dolls with unrealistically thin bodies have had negative effects on young girls’ self-esteem, a movement has ...

When Saffron Jackson went to buy her daughter a doll, she was frustrated at the dearth of options for black girls. So Jackson, a 38-year-old Jamaican teacher who resides in the United Kingdom, decided ...