Part of the pronunciation section of Patwa Partner — how to physically make the sounds of Jamaican Patois.
Yuh see chrii fi three an jrink fi drink all over dis app. Dat a no stylisation — a a real rule. When t come before r, di two melt inna a ch. When d come before r, dem melt inna a j.
🔤 Di symbol dem, explained
/tʃ/ — Di ch inna church. Dis a weh tr land.
/dʒ/ — Di j inna judge. Dis a weh dr land.
chr / jr — Di JLU spelling. It write weh di mouth a do, no weh English write.
👅 Mek di sound
Seh di English word train slow, an stop pon di very first sound. Feel weh di tongue tip deh — no pon di ridge like a clean t, but pull back likkle bit, because di r a drag it.
Now let it slide di rest a di way back an spread di tongue wide. Dat position a di ch.
Release wid a slow hiss instead a a sharp burst. Train come out chrain.
Fi dr: same exact movement, voice on fram di start. Drink come out jrink, draw come out jaa.
Di rule reach past di R too. A t before a front vowel can go di same way — which a why yuh hear a machete call manchara.
Watch di TH page a wuk wid dis one: three lose di TH to t first, den di tr tun chr. Two rule, one word: chrii.
🎞 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 chew, den seh true back to back. If dem start di same way, yuh have it. If true start wid a sharp English t, di tongue never pull back far enough.
⚠️ Weh people slipDi big slip a over-doing it: chr is not ch plus a separate r spelt out. Di r a already inside di sound. Second slip — applying it weh no r deh: talk, take, ten keep dem plain t.
🪜 Practice ladder
Step one — one word at a time. Tap ▶ fi hear it, den seh it back.
seh it
JLU
English
tree
chrii
three
chrough
chruu
through
chrain
chrien
train
jrink
jringk
drink
jraw
jraa
draw
jry
jrai
dry
Step two — di phrase.
PhraseGimme chrii a dem — Give me three of them
Step three — di full sentence. Dis a di one fi record.
SentenceDi chrain jry up before it reach chrough — The train dried up before it got through
🎙 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. 41–42 [fieldwork 1952–59]
Initial tr- becomes /ch/ and dr- becomes /j/: tree as /chii/, through as /chruu/, drink as /jink/, draw and dry as /jaa/ and /jai/. Older writers rendered the same forms in eye-dialect.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), p. 42 [fieldwork 1952–59]
The shift reaches past the r: t before a front vowel can go the same way, giving /chiini/ for the china-root and /manchara/ for a machete. So the rule is about where the tongue lands, not about the letter r.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), p. 42 [fieldwork 1952–59]
Related local substitutions are recorded but are parish-narrow rather than general: y for l in the Trelawny cockpit country, ny for y around Quickstep in St. Elizabeth.
The described rules come from the published work above. The teaching, the wording and the animation are mine.