Understanding Jamaican Patois (1991)

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L. Emilie Adams spent many years working in rural Jamaica, teaching children with learning difficulties. During the course of her work she discovered that a significant factor contributing to these perceived learning difficulties was that these children had grown up in Patois speaking households, with little of no exposure to "traditional" English. They then found it difficult to learn in "traditional" English speaking schools.

Adams wrote a book to help such children from Patois speaking backgrounds understand traditional English and, hence, overcome one of the major obstacles to their learning. This book developed over many years to become "Understanding Jamaican Patois", an introductory guide to the Jamaican dialect of English.

Unlike many other guides, Understanding Jamaican Patois tackles this task by firstly explaining some of the basic mechanics of Jamaican Grammar. These mechanics then provide the reader with a foothold in the language to aid understanding of the Patois spoken in Jamaica.

After introducing the reader to the grammatical structure of Jamaican patois, Adams then includes a chapter of phrases for the reader to get a feel for how the grammatical rules of Jamaican patois are applied in practice. This is followed by a chapter outlining some useful vocabulary.

The book then ends with a story transcribed in to patois, using two phonetically-based transcription systems.

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