Retreat to Stupidity

Jamaican Patois is NOT a language.
It is what linguists called a Pidgin.
Like 'Ebonics' it is a haphazard
invention by those who were never
taught English; such as slaves.

Pidgins are made up of mispronounced
or misused words from the dominant
tongue along with replacement words
when one does not know the correct term.

Often there are bits of other languages
mixed into the soup of a pidgin so that
it is not of one piece.

In Jamaica there are a few words from
the Akan dialect; yaaba, fenky-fenky,
bumba, etc. As well as the 'me/wo/oona
which corresponds to I/you/us in English.

Patois was considered the 'slave tongue'
up until 1980.

English was enforced in schools and in
business and those who could not speak it
were looked down upon.

Marcus Garvey, Jamaica's first National
Hero never went beyond primary school, but
spoke and wrote absolutely first class
English.

For Jamaicans to speak standard English
would, as the experiment of the 1970s
proved, allow even the poorest to
attend High School and qualify for
University; and as education was free
the child of Kingston 13 would gain the
space that had been reserved for the
child who lived far above Crossroads.

The upper class, in the 1970s was
devastated when the helper's child
was accepted at the University of the
West Indies, and their child was not.

This is because selection was based on
achievement, not on money.

This had to change.

In 1978 there was a great push to
have Patois accepted as the Natif Langwij.

The poor bought into it.
The rich did not.

Branding on the tongue has been used in
England from the earliest days.

No matter how good someone looked, as soon
as he or she spoke one could 'class' them.

Slaves had been punished for speaking
English so that one could know by voice
the status of the speaker.

Although one might have scoffed and assumed
Jamaicans were far too intelligent to fall
for this apartheid, reality proves the truth.

Jamaicans have bought into Patois as they
did with Cash Plus and Olint, proving they
really are that stupid.

Today, it is very easy to segregate.

The uptown child can speak perfect English.
The uptown child will pass the English exams
and will gain places at the best institutions.

The downtown child can not speak English.
He or she speak the version of Patois in
their district.
The downtown child will fail the English exam
and will not gain a place save at the very
worst institutions.

Never again will the employer suffer the
embarrassment of her helper's son attending
UWI, while hers is discarded.

One would think, watching the descent of
the English pass rate from 23% at the last
G.C.E. exam to it's current 13% at the local
CXC level that the public would be up in arms
demanding their child be taught English.

No.

Patois continues to be enshrined.

Hence, the brilliant young man who can not
speak a grammatical English sentence will
be passed over for the average intellect
who can.

The ex-pat from a low level college will
gain the job that should go, and would go to
a local, if he or she could speak English.

Often, thinking they sound 'cute' or 'clever'
an educated or semi-educated person who can
communicate in English drops into Patois when
pushing forward a point of negligible value.

One will find it, for example, on Facebook
where a response is written in gibberish which
is supposed to be patois.

Some people may try to decipher, most can't be
bothered.

With Haiti so close to Jamaica, and the
clear evidence of the dangers of speaking
an 'unknown' tongue, one would have thought
that the lesson would have been learned.

The non-French speaking Haitian is condemned
to poverty.

If the upper class has its way
this will hold true in Jamaica.