Part of the pronunciation section of Patwa Partner — how to physically make the sounds of Jamaican Patois.
Two last diphthong. ai as inna bwai (boy) an bai (buy). ou as inna mout (mouth) an hous (house). Both a dem start from di same wide-open A yuh just learn — dem only differ inna weh dem run TO.
🔤 Di symbol dem, explained
/ai/ — Open A gliding up an forward toward ee.
/ou/ — Open A gliding up an back toward oo, wid di lips rounding pon di way.
👅 Mek di sound
Start both a dem di same place: di wide-open A. Jaw down, tongue flat, lips neutral.
Fi ai: while di sound still running, pull di tongue up an FORWARD toward di ee position. Lips spread a likkle pon di way. a → ee.
Fi ou: while di sound still running, pull di tongue up an BACK toward di oo position, an round yuh lips as yuh go. a → oo.
Same rule as always: one smooth motion, weight pon di start, di finish a just weh yuh a travel to.
Watch di bw an gw cluster too — bwai (boy), gwaan (go on). Yuh lips round up fi di W same time as dem close fi di B or di back a yuh tongue seal fi di G. Two ting at once, same as kya.
🎞 Watch di mouthDi side view show yuh di tongue — di one ting yuh cyaan check inna a mirror. Di front view a di one yuh can. Tap any word inna di ladder below fi move di mouth pon dat word.
✋🏾 Feel check — do it nowSeh a long open ahhh. Now smile inna di middle a it widout stopping — dat a ai. Start over, an dis time round yuh lips inna di middle instead — dat a ou. Same launch, two different landing.
⚠️ Weh people slipForgetting di N rule. Before an N or NG sound, plenty a di English OU word dem tun rounder inna Patois instead: down → dung, town → tung, brown → brong. Dat nuh a mistake fi fix — a di pattern. But out, mouth, house keep di ou glide.
🪜 Practice ladder
Step one — one word at a time. Tap ▶ fi hear it, den seh it back.
seh it
JLU
English
bwai
bwai
boy
bai
bai
buy
mout
mout
mouth
hous
hous
house
dung
dong
down
gwaan
gwaan
go on / carry on
Step two — di phrase.
PhraseCome dung ya — Come down here
Step three — di full sentence. Dis a di one fi record.
SentenceDi bwai dem deh out a road, gwaan like dem nuh have no hous fi guo — The boys are out on the road, acting like they have no house to go to
🎙 Seh it backRecord yuhself pon di sentence, den play di two back to back. Yuh own ear a di judge — dat a how di mouth learn.
🎚 Mout Check — look pon weh yuh just didYuh hear yuhself back up top. Dis show yuh di same ting inna two picture yuh ear cyaan draw: weh yuh tongue deh, an how even yuh beat dem run.
Sources
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), pp. 38–39 [fieldwork 1952–59]
/ou/ before a nasal collapses to /ong/ — town, down, brown, ground end in a short nasalised back vowel. Noted by Russell in 1868 and by Jekyll, and generalised even onto now, as /nong/.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), pp. 44–45 [fieldwork 1952–59]
Scattered diphthong swaps: raging as /raijin/, prayer as /praia/, hag and bag often /haig/ and /baig/.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), p. 47 [fieldwork 1952–59]
Over-correction reverses the /ong/ rule — avoiding the stigmatised ending, a speaker may produce /lounz/ for lungs, a word with no /ou/ in Standard at all.
The described rules come from the published work above. The teaching, the wording and the animation are mine.