It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language. Patois developed in the 17th century when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned, and nativized the vernacular and dialectal forms of English spoken by the slaveholders: British English, Scots, and Hiberno-English.

What is the history of patois?

Patois comes from French origin meaning “rough speech” and usually carries a negative connotation (Gladwell 1994). Also called African English, the language of the Jamaican people began to develop in the 1600's in Jamaica with the slave trade—the mix of the European cultures and African created Creole (Gladwell 1994).

Is patois an official language?

The official language of Jamaica is English, but the unofficial language is a patois. Linguists and a handful of Jamaican novelists have recently transformed this oral language into written form, although for most Jamaicans it remains solely spoken—and richly nuanced.