Thank you.
Lowena wrote:Jamaican Patois is awesome. For some reason I just love English-based creoles. I think it's because I feel like I should be able to understand them, because they have many English words, but some are completely incomprehensible.
Yeah, I think English-based creoles are fascinating to me, too. But honestly, I just know more about English-based creoles than any other ones (and even more specifically, English-based "Atlantic" creoles, if that makes any sense), because that's what my former advisor works on (aside from Romani).
It's really fun to listen to. It seems to have very pronounced contours in the intonation, which sounds cool.
Do you mean the "rising" (in terms of sonority) diphthongs, i.e. [uo] and [ie] (cf. American English [oʊ] and [eɪ])?
Here's a pretty good (and funny) example from a (non-?)native of Patwa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyTl3EDgwn8The actor who plays Gus, Dulé Hill, has Jamaican parents, but I don't know if he grew up speaking it or is just acting.
Thanks for the video! Yeah, that did look pretty interesting.
ceid donn wrote:Oh ffs. I didn't realize you were also an authority on this as well.
Thanks for the flattering remark, but no, I'm not even close to being an authority on it. In fact, have I ever claimed to be an authority on anything, really? At most, I think I've said I know more about linguistics than most (not all) UniLangers.
Anyhow, no, in fact Toots & the Maytals did not sing in Patwa nor did I say they did.
Nor did I say you said they did, but I'm glad you made it clear to me that it wasn't Patwa.
They were an important ska band back in the day and like most ska bands they sang in English to help sell records overseas. I had only only jokingly suggested it as a theme song back when k and I were having a little fun with this.
You seem to be pretty upset about what I said, which is too bad because I really didn't mean to criticize or anything. You posted a Jamaican song on a thread about Patwa, so I was curious to see whether it was in Patwa or not, and after actually listening to it, I didn't think it was. I pointed this out because it was relevant to the point I was making in that post, which is basically that since it's an English-based creole spoken in a country where the official language is English, it's not always clear what is Patwa and what is not. You may know already that it isn't Patwa. That's great for you, but you can't expect everyone to know everything you do.
Vijay, I know you think I'm some stupid woman who you can patronize to make yourself feel all smart, so whatever. That's your issues, dude.
No, you clearly don't, because I don't think so, and I am not patronizing you.
But if you're going to be a condescending wannabe-linguist asshole in response to something I have posted *do not* imply I said something I didn't.
How am I "a condescending wannabe-linguist asshole"? Just because I said something linguistic about something you posted? And when did I imply anything about what you did or didn't say?
And honestly, I did my freaking master's in linguistics. I think that makes me more than a "wannabe-linguist."