Part of the pronunciation section of Patwa Partner — how to physically make the sounds of Jamaican Patois.
Every sound yuh just learn, lined up against how it get written — di popular chat spelling pon one side, di Cassidy-JLU standard pon di other. Dis a di bridge between dis section an di ✍🏾 JLU Writing section.
| sound | symbol | popular | JLU | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TH (quiet) | /t/ | t | t | tink · mout |
| TH (buzzy) | /d/ | d | d | dis · dat · dem |
| K wid a Y | /kʲ/ | cy / ky | ky | cyaan · kyar |
| G wid a Y | /gʲ/ | gy | gy | gyal · gyaad |
| B wid a W | /bʷ/ | bw | bw | bwail · bwoy |
| P wid a W | /pʷ/ | pw | pw | pwail · pwoint |
| R after vowel | (gone) | a | a | wata · neva |
| H | /h/ | h or dropped | h or dropped | 'ouse · hegg |
| Trimmed cluster | — | -c, -s, -n | -k, -s, -n | respec · bes · han |
| TR → CH | /tʃ/ | chr | chr | chrii · chrain |
| DR → J | /dʒ/ | jr | jr | jrink · jraw |
| T → K before -le | /k/ | kl | kl | likl · sekl |
| D → G before -le | /g/ | gl | gl | niigl · figl |
| N → NG before -le | /ŋ/ | ngl | ngl | kyangl · hangl |
| ee → eh glide | /ie/ | a…e (English-look) | ie | niem · biek |
| oo → aw glide | /uo/ | o (English-look) | uo | guo · buot |
| Open A (short) | /a/ | a | a | bad · han |
| Open A (long) | /aa/ | aa | aa | baad · waata |
| a → ee glide | /ai/ | ai | ai | bwai · bai |
| a → oo glide | /ou/ | ou | ou | mout · hous |
| Unstressed vowel | /i/ or /a/, not /ə/ | i / a | i / a | koril · hebini |
The writing system this chart maps to. One symbol per sound, no silent letters, no c outside ch, the four double vowels ai / ie / ou / uo, the palatal ky and gy, the affricates chr / jr / schr, and the nasal marker hn.
The orthography is Cassidy's, extended by the Jamaican Language Unit. This app uses it; it does not own it.
The described rules come from the published work above. The teaching, the wording and the animation are mine.
Practise this sound with the animated mouth →