THE EDITOR, Madam:
I AM highly intrigued by the various learned discourses on Jamaican patois, especially those emanating from the University of the West Indies (UWI).
I am a lover and speaker of Jamaican patois myself and spoke it almost exclusively up to age 11, much to my family's distress. I think it is the most expressive form or variation of the English language, especially for "tracing". Have you ever heard two higglers "trace" each other, it is most entertaining and educative but I have a problem. "At what stage does Jamaican Patois become a language"?
There are several grades and variations of patois. Whether they realise it or not, all Jamaicans (or maybe 98 per cent) speak patois quite often at different levels.
The patois spoken in upper St. Andrew drawing rooms is vastly different from the patois spoken in west Kingston. The patois spoken at Jamaica College and the Senior Common Room at the university is different from the patois of rural elementary schools or Coronation Market. Most telephone operators speak two "languages" while at the switchboard - formal English to customers on the line and "heavy" patois to the person sitting beside them.
I would like to get some opinions on the following question: At what stage does Jamaican patois become a language e.g. Coronation Market patois or Senior Common Room of the UWI patois?
I am directing this enquiry more to the university, but would welcome opinions from any source, intellectual or otherwise. Not many intellectuals can speak "real real" patois, but their origin can be assessed by the level of patois they lapse into from time to time.
I am, etc.,
A.D.J. WELLER
Kingston 20
