Jamaican

About Jamaican Patois

Jamaican Patois, also called Patwa or Jamaican Creole, is the everyday language of Jamaica. It grew from English and West African languages, especially Akan (see Twi), from the 1600s onward. English is the official language and is used in schools, news and business, while Patois is the language of home, the street, music and jokes. Most Jamaicans move easily between the two, and Patois is also heard in Jamaican communities in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

Patois has no single fixed spelling, so the same word can appear in several forms, such as di or de for "the". Many words look like English but sound different: th often becomes d or t, as in dem (them) and tink (think). Mi means both I and me, unu means you when speaking to more than one person, and wah gwaan is a friendly "what's up". With strangers or in formal settings, standard English is the safer choice.

FamilyEnglish-based creole
Where spokenJamaica, Jamaican communities abroad
ScriptLatin alphabet, no fixed spelling
Codejam (ISO 639-3)

Classification: Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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