Aspects of Jamaican patois through the lyrics of dancehall music

Abstract

The aim of this study is to provide an introductory approach to Jamaican patois and its main characteristics. According to the “Cambridge Dictionary”, ‘patois’ refers to “the form of a language spoken by people in a particular area that is different from the standard language of the country”. While Jamaican patois is spoken by the majority of the population in Jamaica, Jamaican English (JamE) is mostly used by institutions (cf. Michaelis, Maurer, Haspelmath & Huber 2013). As a point of departure, my project will consist of a theoretical part in which I will offer general information about the social and historical features that characterise Jamaican patois as well as Jamaican English. To this end, I will use a number of bibliographical references (cf. Bertens 2003; Deuber 2014, among others). The second part of the study will be of a more practical nature, and will pay special attention to the analysis of different songs from what is known as ‘Dancehall music’. This particular music genre includes in its lyrics many different examples of Jamaican patois, which can be very helpful if one wants to really understand certain aspects of the culture and the society of Jamaica. Moreover, the lyrics of the songs selected for the analysis will be compared and contrasted with their standard (British or American) versions