Jamaican English

Variety of the English language used in Jamaica Part of a series on theEnglish language Features Phonology history Grammar Vocabulary Orthography English alphabet Societal aspects History English-speaking world Commonwealth As a second language teaching As a lingua franca Linguistic purism Dialects (full list) American AAVE Southern Australian Bangladeshi British in England Scottish Welsh Cameroonian Canadian Caribbean Antiguan and Barbudan Belizean Trinidadian and Tobagonian Jamaican Fijian Ghanaian Hong Kong Indian Irish Kenyan Liberian Malawian Malaysian Namibian Nepali New Zealand Nigerian Pakistani Philippine Rwandan Sierra Leonean Singapore South African Sri Lankan Ugandan Zimbabwean vte Speech example An example of a woman and man with Jamaican English accents. Problems playing this file? See media help. Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is the variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (a creole language), though not entirely a sharp distinction so much as a gradual continuum between two extremes. Jamaican English tends to follow British English spel