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Iyaric | |
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Native to | Jamaica |
Native speakers | None (liturgical language) |
English creole
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Iyaric, also called Dread Talk, or Rasta Talk, is a form of language constructed by members of the Rastafari movement through alteration of vocabulary. When Africans were taken into captivity as a part of the slave trade, English was imposed as a colonial language and their traditional African languages were lost. In defiance, the Rastafari movement created a modified English vocabulary and dialect, with the aim of liberating their language from its history as a tool of colonial oppression. This is accomplished by avoiding sounds and words with negative connotations, such as "back", and changing them to positive ones. Iyaric sometimes also plays a liturgical role among Rastas, [1] in addition to Amharic and Ge'ez. [2]
Iyaric shares phonological features with Jamaican Creole, with certain sounds, such as /a/, being stressed for the purpose of group identification distinct from Jamaican Creole. [3] In 2015, Doctor of linguistics Havenol M. Schrenk adapted a phoneme inventory from the President Emeritus of the International Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Rocky Ricardo Meade, as follows:
Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
Stop | p | b | t | d | tʃ | dʒ | c | ɟ | k | ɡ |
Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | |||||
Approximant/Lateral | ɹ | j | w | |||||||
l |
Letter | IPA |
---|---|
i | i |
e | ɛ |
a | a |
o | o |
u | u |
Iyaric's lexical departure from the pronominal system of Jamaican Creole is one of the dialect's defining features. [5] [6] Linguistics researcher Benjamin Slade comments that Jamaican Creole and Standard English pronoun forms are all acceptable in Iyaric, but speakers almost always use the I-form of first-person pronouns, while I-form usage for second-person pronouns is less frequent. [5] He details his findings in the table below:
Standard English | Jamaican Creole | Iyaric | |
---|---|---|---|
1sg | I / me / my | mi | I, Iman, (I and I)* ... |
2sg | you / your | yu | de I, de Iman (thy) ... |
3sg | he, she, it / him, her, it / his, her, its | im, (i, shi, ar) | (im, i, shi) ... |
1pl | we / us / our | wi | I and I, (I, we) ... |
2pl | you (all) / your | yu, unu | de Is, (unu) ... |
3pl | they / them / their | dem | (dem, dey) ... |
*Forms in brackets are less common |
Some Rastas avoid using certain words in the English language because they contain phonetic sounds that invoke negative connotations. Iyaric vocabulary developed in response to this, resulting in a dialect that challenged the negative colonial framework Rastas perceive in Jamaica's vernacular English. [7]
The base word forms for Iyaric are imported from Jamaican Creole, [3] and the constituent phonemes for those words are analyzed for positive or negative connotation against an English lexifier. Words whose phonetic connotations conflict with the word's overall semantics are called the "Babylon" (colonial English) form of the word, and Iyaric uses a system called "Iformation" ("I" + transformation) [5] to substitute those incongruously connoted phonetic matches with new phonemes that match the connotation of the overall word. This process of phono-semantic matching results in a lexicon containing only Zionic word forms, which exclude negative phonemes [8] from positive words and positive phonemes from negatively connoted words.
The purpose for favoring Zionic word forms over Babylonic word forms is to influence the speaker's cognition [9] through the structure of the dialect, with the intent to challenge colonial biases that may be inherent in the structures of English.
For example, the word "hello" is not used because they see it as containing phonetic matches for the negatively connoted English words "hell" and "low". Instead, expressions such as 'wa gwaan', 'yes I' and 'cool nuh lyah' (or 'cool alyuh'. 'alyuh'-all of you) are used because they uplift people. If at a Rastafari church, they would use their formal church greetings. For instance, the Rastafari branch known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel would say, "Greetings in that Most Precious and Divine Name of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has revealed Himself through the wonderful personality of H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie the 1st of Ethiopia". [10]
The earliest origin of Iyaric is debated, though it is generally agreed that the dialect was deliberately created by Rastas as an argot. [12] Despite the dialect's secretive beginnings, Iyaric words and meaning have migrated outside of Rasta communities into wider usage around the globe through reggae music and media. [13] The term dreadlocks, for example, is used worldwide for the hairstyle that was popularized by the Rastafari movement. Rastafari metaphors like Zion and Babylon, as well as the Iyaric words "overstand" and "politricks" have entered hip hop culture through Caribbean-American and Caribbean-British rappers/musicians.[ citation needed ] In Europe, perhaps influenced by popular culture depictions of or actual encounters with Afro-Caribbean "rude boy" gangs, the term Babylon is sometimes used to refer to the police.[ citation needed ]
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas.
Dreadlocks, also known as dreads or locs, are a hairstyle made of rope-like strands of hair. This is done by not combing the hair and allowing it to mat naturally or by twisting it manually. Over time, the hair will form tight braids or ringlets.
Ewart Beckford OD, known by the stage name U-Roy, was a Jamaican vocalist and pioneer of toasting. U-Roy was known for a melodic style of toasting applied with a highly developed sense of timing.
The Bobo Ashanti, also known as the Ethiopian African Black International Congress (E.A.B.I.C), is a religious group originating in Bull Bay near Kingston, Jamaica.
Jamaican culture consists of the religion, norms, values, and lifestyle that define the people of Jamaica. The culture is mixed, with an ethnically diverse society, stemming from a history of inhabitants beginning with the original inhabitants of Jamaica. The Spaniards originally brought slavery to Jamaica. Then they were overthrown by the English. Jamaica later gained emancipation on 1 August 1838, and independence from the British on 6 August 1962. Black slaves became the dominant cultural force as they suffered and resisted the harsh conditions of forced labour. After the abolition of slavery, Chinese and Indian migrants were transported to the island as indentured workers, bringing with them ideas from their country.
Christafari is a Christian reggae band formed in 1989. It is centered on Christ Jesus and follows the personality of ordained minister Mark Mohr, an American, and born-again Christian. Until the age of 17, Mohr was a Rastafarian.
Leonard Percival Howell, also known as The Gong or G. G. Maragh, was a Jamaican religious figure. According to his biographer Hélène Lee, Howell was born into an Anglican family. He was one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement, and is known by many as The First Rasta.
Mortimo St George "Kumi" Planno, was a renowned Rastafari elder, drummer and a follower of the back-to-Africa movement founded in the 1910s by Marcus Garvey. He is best known as the Rasta teacher and friend of Bob Marley, and as the man who commanded the respect of a chaotic crowd during the arrival of Emperor Haile Selassie on his visit to Jamaica in 1966. He is referred to by other Rastas as a teacher and a leader within the context of the faith, given his life's work.
Mansions of Rastafari is an umbrella term for the various groups of the Rastafari movement. Such groups include the Bobo Ashanti, the Niyabinghi, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and several smaller groups, including African Unity, Covenant Rastafari, Messianic Dreads, SeeGold Empire, and the Selassian Church. The term is taken from the Biblical verse in John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions."
Grounation Day is an important Rastafari holy day, second only to Coronation Day. It is celebrated in honour of Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica.
The Rastafari movement in the United States echoes the Rastafari religious movement, which began in Jamaica and Ethiopia during the 1930s. Marcus Garvey, born in Jamaica, was influenced by the Ethiopian king Haile Selassie. Jamaican Rastafaris began emigrating to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and established communities throughout the country.
"Jah Live" is a song by Bob Marley & The Wailers, released as a single in 1975. The song was recorded and released within days following the announcement of the death of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia whom Rastafarians see as the reincarnation of God, whom they call Jah. The song was written as a message to the world that Haile Selassie I had not died as the Ethiopian government of the time and detractors of the Rastafarian religion claimed. When the song was released, Selassie was claimed dead by the Ethiopian authorities but there was no body. Marley was prescient in response to the news that no body had not been found saying, "Yuh cyant kill God".
A chalice, also known as a wisdom chalice or chillum chalice, is a type of cannabis smoking pipe used most often by members of the Jamaican Rastafari movement. It is a type of water pipe used for smoking.
Abuna Yesehaq, was a leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the Western hemisphere.
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Nyabinghi or Nyabingi is a legendary woman in the culture of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, where religions or 'possession cults' formed around her.
The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act, also known as The Dread Act, was a 1974 Dominica law that was designed to combat Rastafari.
The Rastafari movement developed out of the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade, in which over ten million Africans were enslaved and transported to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. Once there, they were sold to European planters and forced to work on the plantations. Around a third of these transported Africans were relocated in the Caribbean, with under 700,000 being settled in Jamaica. In 1834, slavery in Jamaica was abolished after the British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Racial prejudice nevertheless remained prevalent across Jamaican society. The overwhelming majority of Jamaica's legislative council was white throughout the 19th century, and those of African descent were treated as second-class citizens.
Nyabinghi is one of the oldest denominations, or "Orders", of the Rastafari movement.
Jamaica–Ethiopia relations are bilateral relations between Jamaica and Ethiopia.
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