My take on the patois (patwah) debate

I think that patois is a verbal/oral dialect. It makes no sense to try to translate it and put it in print. And don't tell me that some Jamaicans do not understand standard english. They watch TV -- movies, soap operas, etc. They understand what they are hearing. They may not be able to speak it, but they certainly understand it.

Do you know who need to speak patois? The policemen when they are giving reports on the news. They are so uncomfortable using standard english, so unsure of themselves, that they speak very slowly and seem like they don't know what they are talking about. If only they would speak in patois, then they would be comfortable, fluent, and show that they really know their stuff.

An interesting thing to see is when out and about you hear a child speaking the most flat patois and the embarrassed parent berating that child to speak properly. Well, I think that's what the child hears being spoken at home. I am talking about things like "a wha dat?". No matter if the parents pretend to be 'stush', the child will expose them the minute he/she starts talking.

And this nonsense about a patois bible so that the illiterate can understand. If a person cannot read standard english, how will that person be able to read patois? It has no set spelling. It has no set grammar, etc. Whose patois are we going to use anyway? We all know that there are various versions of patois in different areas of the island.

e.g.

I am going down there

A going down there (upper St. Andrew patois)

Mi going down dere

Mi a guh dung deh

Mi a guh dung deh so

Mi dey gu dung deh

Mi ben gu dung deh

So, whose version of patois is going to be translated into this patois bible?

Not to mention some parts of Jamaica where females are referred to as "him". Have you ever watched the news and seen someone from the countryside relating an incident? That is one conversation that's interesting. So which him is being referred to now? The man or the woman? Will the patois bible have to refer to the Virgin Mary as 'him' so that some people will understand?

Patois is difficult to read. Have you ever tried to read a whole paragraph written in patois? Very difficult. There are some things that only patois can convey what needs to be said. That's when it should be used in written form.

The time and money which some people want to spend teaching people to read and write patois, which is only useful in Jamaica, should instead be spent on a literacy programme to teach standard english, which can be used all over the world.

If we do not buckle down and see to it that our people are able to communicate in standard english, then dawg nyam wi suppa.

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