The list of African words in Jamaican Patois notes down as many loan words in Jamaican Patois that can be traced back to specific African languages, the majority of which are Twi words. [1] [2] Most of these African words have arrived in Jamaica through the enslaved Africans that were transported there in the era of the Atlantic slave trade.
Patwa | Language | Original word | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Accompong Town | Akan | Acheampong, an Asante name. The name of Nanny of the Maroons and her brother who founded the Maroon town of the same name. | |
Ackee, akeee | Akan | Ánkyẽ | "a type of food/fruit", "cashew fruits" [3] |
Duppy, Dopi | Akan, Ga Language(an Akan loanword, Ga has many Akan loanwords and were at one point conquered by the much more powerful and numerous Akwamu-Akan) | Adópé (Dwarf in Ga language, but borrowed from Twi like many Ga customs. In Akan culture, ghosts take the form of dwarves[Mmotia] and apes[aboatia or adopeh] [note the -tia as a Twi suffix to denote a small stature, ghosts in Akan culture and Jamaica are seen as shape-shifters, they can be very big or very small. But are commonly so small they would be microscopic. Akans are the only West Africans that have dwarves as spiritual entities, which are considered to be tricksters. The word is said among the Ga people but the Jamaican application of the word matches the now extinct and former Akan word. An Akan origin for Duppy is far more likely.) | Demon, Ghost, often written in Jamaican English as "duppy" [1] [2] |
Red Eye | Akan | Ani bere | "envious – direct translation from Akan into English" |
Adrue | Akan, Ewe(The Akwamu-Akan also conquered the Ewe and introduced to them concepts such as matrilineal inheritance, stools and of course Akan loanwords the Ewe were originally and still are patrilineal.) | Adúru, adrú | "powder, medicine, drug" [1] |
Afasia, afasayah | Akan, Ewe | Afaséw, afaséɛ | "inferior wild yam" [1] |
Afu | Akan | Afúw | "yam" or "plantation" [4] |
Ahpetti | Akan | O-peyi | A certain amulet [5] |
Akam | Akan | Akam | A wild and inferior yam |
Anansi | Akan | Anansi | "Spider" [6] also name Akan folktale character. |
Bafan | Akan | Bafan | a baby or toddler. A child that did not learn to walk between ages two and seven. [7] |
Bissy | Akan | Bese | Kola Nut |
Brownin' | Akan | Oburoni | a white or near white person [7] |
Butu dung(verb) | Akan | Butu | to stoop or squat |
Burru music | Asante-Akan | Kete music | from the twi 'Aburukwa', the smallest drum in Kete music. Kete is a form of war drumming that originated with the Asante people, then spread to other Akans. In Jamaica. It is called Buru. |
Buru (adj) | Akan | Buru | "Wild, Unkempt" |
Casha | Asante-Akan | Kasɛ́ | Acacia or "thorn" [8] |
Dokunu | Fante-Akan | Dɔkono | (also known as blue draws or tie-a-leaf in Jamaica) food, a dessert item similar to bread pudding. [9] |
Cocobay | Akan | Kokobé | "leprosy" [6] [10] |
Fufu yam | Akan | Fufuo meaning white and referring to the Akan dish which is a pounded into a paste of white yam and cassava. | white yam |
Ginal | Akan (Ashanti Twi) | Gyegyefuo, Gyegyeni. | Someone that is not taken seriously, a stupid person. A con-man (in Jamaica only) |
Kaba-kaba | Yoruba, Akan, Ewe | "unreliable, inferior, worthless" [11] | |
Kete | Asante-Akan | Aburukwa | "the smallest drum in Kete music" |
Come-come-seh | Akan | Konkonsa | "gossip" [6] |
Mumu | Akan, Ewe, Mende, Yoruba | "dumb", "stupid" [6] [12] | |
Odum | Akan | Odum | a type of tree [13] |
Obeah | Akan (Ashanti Twi) | Ɔbayi | "witchcraft" [14] |
Opete | Akan | opete(archaic but preserved by the maroons, now replaced by John Crow, a Fante slaveseller. Contemporary Jamaicans use the term John Crow to mean vulture and as an insult to mean a traitor or evil person.) | "vulture" [7] |
Paki | Akan | apakyi | calabash [15] |
Patu | Akan | Patu | "owl" [7] |
Printing Man | Asante-Akan | Aprentengman | a type of drum used in Kete and Buru music. |
Poto-poto | Yorùbá, universally West African | "mud", "muddy" [6] | |
Backra | Efik | Mbakára | "white man" [6] [16] |
Juk | Fula | Jukka | "poke", "spur" [17] [18] |
Attoo | Igbo | átú | "chewing stick" [19] |
Breechee | Igbo | Mbùríchì | Nri-Igbo nobleman [20] |
Chink, chinch | Igbo | chị́nchị̀ | 'bedbug' [21] |
Country ibo | Igbo | Ị̀gbò | Pluchea odorata or Ptisana purpurascens [22] |
Himba | Igbo | Mba | "yam root", a type of yam, Rajania cordata [23] [24] |
Nyam | Fula | Nyam | to eat |
Okra | Igbo | ọkwurụ | a type of vegetable [6] [25] |
Red Ibo, Eboe | Igbo | Ị̀gbò | a person with a light skin colour or a mulatto of mixed parentage [26] |
Unu | Igbo | únù | "you (plural)" [27] |
Dingki | Kongo | funeral ceremony [23] | |
Dundus | Kongo | ndundu | "albino", "white person", "European" [10] |
Abe | Akan | Abe | Palm coconut seed |
Pinda | Kongo | "peanut" [6] |
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form, and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fledged language with native speakers, all within a fairly brief period. While the concept is similar to that of a mixed or hybrid language, creoles are often characterized by a tendency to systematize their inherited grammar. Like any language, creoles are characterized by a consistent system of grammar, possess large stable vocabularies, and are acquired by children as their native language. These three features distinguish a creole language from a pidgin. Creolistics, or creology, is the study of creole languages and, as such, is a subfield of linguistics. Someone who engages in this study is called a creolist.
Patois is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, patois can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.
Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is the variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois, though not entirely a sharp distinction so much as a gradual continuum between two extremes. Jamaican English tends to follow British English spelling conventions.
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Sranan Tongo
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Jamaican Patois is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. Words or slang from Jamaican Patois can be heard in other Caribbean countries, the United Kingdom, New York City and Miami in the United States, and Toronto, Canada. The majority of non-English words in Patois derive from the West African Akan language. It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language.
Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbeanpeople are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the trans-Atlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries to work primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Other names for the ethnic group include Black Caribbean, Afro- or Black West Indian, or Afro- or Black Antillean. The term West Indian Creole has also been used to refer to Afro-Caribbean people, as well as other ethnic and racial groups in the region, though there remains debate about its use to refer to Afro-Caribbean people specifically. The term Afro-Caribbean was not coined by Caribbean people themselves but was first used by European Americans in the late 1960s.
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Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach..
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Frederic Gomes Cassidy was a Jamaican-born linguist and lexicographer. He was a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) where he was also the chief editor from 1962 until his death. He was an advocate for the Jamaican language and a pioneer of autonomous orthographies for creole languages.
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Igbo people in Jamaica were trafficked by Europeans onto the island between the 18th and 19th centuries as enslaved labour on plantations. Igbo people constituted a large portion of the African population enslaved people in Jamaica. Jamaica received the largest number of enslaved people from the biafra region than anywhere else in the diaspora during the slave trade. Some slave censuses detailed the large number of enslaved Igbo people on various plantations throughout the island on different dates throughout the 18th century. Their presence was a large part in forming Jamaican culture, Igbo cultural influence remains in language, dance, music, folklore, cuisine, religion and mannerisms. In Jamaica the Igbo were often referred to as Eboe or Ibo. There are a substantial number of Igbo language loanwords in Jamaican Patois. Igbo people mostly populated the northwestern section of the island.
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