Part of the pronunciation section of Patwa Partner — how to physically make the sounds of Jamaican Patois.
When two or three consonant dem pile up at di END a a word, Patois trim di last one off. Respect → respec. Best → bes. Hand → han. Old → ole. It so regular yuh can run it as a rule.
🔤 Di symbol dem, explained
cluster — Two or more consonant sound dem back to back wid no vowel between — di -st inna best, di -nd inna hand.
reduction — Di linguistics word fi cutting one off. Full name: final consonant cluster reduction. Yuh nah go need it again.
👅 Mek di sound
Seh di English word slow an watch weh yuh mouth do at di very end. Fi best, di tongue tap di ridge one extra time fi di T after di S done.
Cut dat last move out. Stop pon di S. bes.
Fi hand: di tongue already deh pon di ridge fi di N — just nuh release it into a D. Stop deh so. han.
Fi old: di L already pon di ridge. Same ting — stop. ole.
Fi respect: stop pon di K. respec.
Yuh will hear di trimmed sound come back sometimes when di next word start wid a vowel. Dat normal an automatic — nuh study it.
🎞 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 nowRest one finger pon di point a yuh chin an seh best slow. Yuh feel two likkle movement at di end. Now seh bes — one movement. Dat a it done.
⚠️ Weh people slipTrimming di WRONG end. Di rule only touch di end a di word — di start stay full. Also nuh trim so hard dat di word disappear: bes still need a clear S, it just nuh need di T.
🪜 Practice ladder
Step one — one word at a time. Tap ▶ fi hear it, den seh it back.
seh it
JLU
English
respec
rispek
respect
bes
bes
best
han
han
hand
ole
uol
old
lef
lef
left
fren
fren
friend
col
kuol
cold
Step two — di phrase.
PhraseMi bes fren — My best friend
Step three — di full sentence. Dis a di one fi record.
SentenceHim lef di ole one deh pon di step — He left the old one there on the step
🎙 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. 37–38 [fieldwork 1952–59]
States the rule precisely: where the second sound of a cluster is p, t, k, d, g, s or ch, that sound and everything after it in the syllable is lost — /kris/ crisp, /baptis/ Baptist, /taas/ task, /kuol/ cold, /laisn/ license.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), pp. 37–38 [fieldwork 1952–59]
The important exception: sm- and sn- do not trim, they insert a vowel — /sunuk/ snook, /sineek/ snake, /sumaal/ small, /worom/ worm.
Frederic G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica (1961), pp. 46–47 [fieldwork 1952–59]
And the counter-current: the initial s dropped before p, t and k gets over-restored into words that never had one — /sprikl/ prickle, /skil/ kiln, /stanjariin/ tangerine.
The described rules come from the published work above. The teaching, the wording and the animation are mine.