Language Race And The Global Jamaican

This book examines the racial and socio-linguistic dynamics of Jamaica, a majority black nation where the dominant ideology continues to look to white countries as models, yet which continues to defy the odds. The authors trace the history of how a nation of less than three million people has come to be at the centre of cultural, racial and linguistic influence globally; producing a culture than has transformed the way that the world listens to music, and a dialect that has formed the lingua franca for a generation of young people. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Caribbean linguistics, Africana studies, diaspora studies, sociology of language and sociolinguistics more broadly.

"The Roots of Caribbean Identity has as its central elements race, place and language. The book presents a movement from a European construction of Caribbean identity towards a more Caribbean construction. The ways in which the identity of the Caribbean region and the identities of the separate islands within the region were shaped are set out in a chronological sequence, starting from the time of the European encounters with the Amerindians and finishing at the end of the nineteenth century."(extrait de la 4ème de couv.).

Learn how to center, affirm, and develop Black immigrant literacies in ways that allow all youth to engage with and honor their literacies. This book presents a framework to revolutionize teaching in ways that draw on students’ assets for redesigning, rethinking, and reimagining literacy and the English Language Arts curriculum. This novel framework has five mechanisms through which Black immigrant literacies and languaging can be better understood: the struggle for justice, the myth of the model minority, transraciolinguistics, the local-global, and holistic literacies. Presenting authentic narratives of Afro-Caribbean youth, the author describes how teachers and educators can: (1) teach the Black literate immigrant; (2) use literacy and English language arts curriculum as a vehicle for instructing Black immigrant youth; (3) foster relations among Black immigrants and their peers through literacy; and (4) connect parents, schools, and communities. The text includes lesson plans, instructional modules, and templates that range in their focus from K–12 to college. Book Features: Details how teachers, curriculum, and instruction can benefit from understanding the experiences of Black immigrant students, and how that experience differs from other Black American students.Highlights authentic narratives that center the holistic voices of Afro-Caribbean immigrant youth from Jamaica and the Bahamas. Demonstrates how students grapple with racialization, becoming immigrants, and the responses of others to their use of Englishes in the United States. Offers research-based methods for teaching all students to draw on their metalinguistic, metacultural, and metaracial understandings in literacy and ELA classrooms.Presents concrete strategies for supporting Black immigrant populations in establishing and sustaining a sense of community across linguistic, cultural, and racial contexts.

"An important addition to studies of the genesis and life of Jamaican Creole as well as other New World creoles such as Gulla. Highlighting the nature of the nonstandard varieties of British English dialects to which the African slaves were exposed, this work presents a refreshingly cogent view of Jamaican Creole features." --SECOL Review "The history of Jamaican Creole comes to life through this book. Scholars will analyze its texts, follow the leads it opens up, and argue about refining its interpretations for a long time to come." --Journal of Pidgin & Creole Languages "The authors are to be congratulated on this substantial contribution to our understanding of how Jamaican Creole developed. Its value lies not only in the linguistic insights of the authors but also in the rich trove of texts that they have made accessible." --English World-Wide "Provides valuable historical and demographic data and sheds light on the origins and development of Jamaican Creole. Lalla and D'Costa offer interesting insights into Creole genesis, not only through their careful mapping of the migrations from Europe and Africa, which constructed the Jamaican society but also through extensive documentation of early texts. . . . Highly valuable to linguists, historians, anthropologists, psychologists, and anyone interested in the Caribbean or in the history of mankind." --New West Indian Guide

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Rostock (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: British and American Transcultural Studies, language: English, abstract: This term paper gives an idea of linguistic diversity in Jamaica and thus discuss whether standard Jamaican English and creole, such as Jamaican Creole, are different languages, and show how these varieties coexist. Over the past centuries, English has spread throughout the world, primarily thanks to the colonial policies of its homeland: Great Britain. Especially in the Caribbean, in the past there were many colonies in the British Empire - one of them, actually the largest, was Jamaica. Being one of many English-speaking countries in the world, it is worth studying, especially from a linguistic point of view, because it is one of the few countries in the Caribbean in which standard English and Creole English have been used almost since its colonization. To get an accurate picture of what English in Jamaica looks like, you need to look at the history of Jamaican languages as well as the current situation. As the standard variety and creole coexist in Jamaica, you need to look at both of them in isolation and how they affect each other. Thus, it will be interesting not only to study the function and some linguistic features of Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole, but also the post-Creole continuum. First of all, a look at the history will show how the English language developed in Jamaica. The following chapters will discuss, in particular, standard Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole, and will introduce the main linguistic features and, therefore, reasons to consider these two languages different or identical. And finally, the study of the post-Creole continuum will clarify the consequences of the mutual influence of these two languages. In the modern world, English is becoming a universal language. 500 million people in 12 countries speak this language. On this occasion, objections may arise, since about 900 million people speak the Mandarin Chinese language. However, do not forget that approximately 600 million more people use English as a second language. Another important addition is the fact that several hundred million people all over the world have a certain knowledge of the English language, since in 62 countries this language has the status of an official language.

This volume brings together the work of six authors who explore various dimensions of language rights and how they intersect with social justice in the Caribbean context. Language rights advocacy has been an ongoing issue in Caribbean linguistics since at least the 1970s when the Society for Caribbean Linguistics was established and linguists started to turn their attention to the marginalised status of Creole languages in the region. This continued into the 1990s when dismal scores in secondary school English resulted in governments singling out Creole languages as the culprit and linguists had to get involved in shaping language policy for territories across the region. By 2011 the role of linguists was cemented in the language rights debate with the creation of the Charter on Language Rights in the Creole-speaking Caribbean. Using examples from Jamaica and St. Lucia, the current study examines the challenges that still persist ten years after the Charter, specifically in the areas of language advocacy, linguistic discrimination, and communicative hurdles in the courtroom.

This Reader collects in one volume the key readings on language, ethnicity and race. Using linguistic and cultural analysis, it explores changing ideas of race and the ways in which these ideas shape human communication.

London Jamaican provides the reader with a new perspective on African descent in London. Based on research carried out in the early 1980s, the author examines the linguistic background of the community, with special emphasis on young people of the first and second British-born generations.