Please click the arrow above to view a teaser.

The Jamaican Language Unit at the University of the West Indies, Mona is set to release its first major commercial publication, a book titled, “Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way/ Ou fi Rait Jamiekan”. The book launch takes place on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 6 pm at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona.

The launch will be hosted by an animated personality, Emcee Jamtik and will be presented in an edutainment format. It features a combination of digital and live performances, including budding dancehall artiste Nickesha Dawkins a.k.a. Gem Sto:n.  She will perform the specially written dancehall song titled, ‘Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way’.

The book covers the fundaments of the Jamaica Language such as the alphabet, vowels, nasalised vowels and consonants, grammar and use of the language in various settings. It ends with samples of written Jamaican pieces, including weather news reports, poems from one of the earliest writers in Jamaican, Claude McKay and an Anansi story.  An interactive CD is also included which allows the users of the book to associate letters with sounds and gives the users a sense of the authentic sound. The CD also features a music video of a dancehall piece by the DJ Gemsto:n, ‘Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way’, which summaries the entire content of the book in 5 minutes.  

The book is designed to teach users how to write the Jamaican Language called Patwa, using the Cassidy standard writing system. “Writing Jamaican the Jamaican Way” will in part address the issue of freedom from discrimination on the ground of language, which had been raised in the Jamaican Parliament. A recommendation was made that a standardized writing system for the Jamaican Language was necessary in order to address this issue and hence the Jamaica Language Unit at UWI was approached to assist in this regard.  

The book was produced with the help of funding from Carreras Limited as part of a grant made to the Jamaican Language Unit for a series of projects involving the promotion of the Jamaican language.

Interested persons may visit the following links for more information on the JLU and to see teaser videos.
http://www.mona.uwi.edu/dllp/jlu/index.htm
http://tv.mona.uwi.edu/#id=433
http://tv.mona.uwi.edu/#id=434