Suddenly it seems the old debate on the status of our primary mode of expression as a legitimate language versus what has been called the "accepted" English tongue, has again broken into the open. Kadene Porter in a recent article in the Observer and a letter in the Gleaner, has very ably put the arguments on the table. I hope readers will avail themselves of her reasoning. She herself has capability in three foreign languages and is not as limited a judge as most of us. Ms Porter suggests what our linguistic experts have been urging all along, that is, we are moving towards bilingual status. This prospect horrifies some of us to whom Standard English is sacrosanct. The common "patois" as an evolving language in its own right is seen by some as a threat to the preservation of "accepted" Standard English. Indeed, the prejudice is hardly disguised when standard English is referred to as "proper" English.

Thus "improper" English is what most Jamaicans in fact speak, since our creole and truly first language is fully intertwined in the daily oral interchange we have with one another. English is reserved for formal print and formal speeches. Very few Jamaican households insist on standard English as the primary mode of speech. We are coming close to the English of whom it was said, "Why can't the English learn to speak English?" In my own lifetime, many years of which were spent abroad, I have seen the ascendancy of our creole from the vernacular of the lesser educated groups to become the everyday language of choice of most of the more educated classes. This is living proof that language is an ever-changing product of a people's culture.

We have seen Latin fade and die as a "proper" language of well-educated European peoples. Who wants to take any bets that our creole language is about to fade and die? At one time my critique was that our primary oral Jamaican language lacked formal grammar and syntax and therefore did not meet the test of a language that could be acquired by a visitor new to it. I used the comparison of Swahili in East Africa. On my first visit to Kenya, I was able to buy a book of Swahili grammar and syntax. With that grounding, it was relatively easy to add vocabulary. Had I continued to reside in the country, within months I would have been able to converse with some fluency in the acquired language. A daughter of mine hated French in high school. After a year in Switzerland immersed in the language, she was described in her term report as having acquired "an excellent mastery of French". As we know, when one is comfortable in one language, this comfort aids the acquisition of other languages. Note that European children in school often acquire three or more languages.

In Jamaica, the majority of our people are not fluent in reading or writing Standard English. Some very bright university students still need remedial English in order to handle their work. Contrast the example Porter's article cited of a child who arrived in Jamaica with French only and who was able in one year to pass CXC exams with distinctions. I return to my former critique that our creole lacked formal written structure, and now formally withdraw that critique. For indeed, there has been a formal written grammar and structure of patois for over 30 years, backed by a body of substantial scholarship on the language. I refer to Jamaica Talk by Frederic Cassidy and Robert Le Page, available in the UWI bookshop, and no doubt elsewhere.

There is also a scholarly dictionary of the Jamaican creole, the Dictionary of Jamaican English of over 500 pages. An overseas visitor asked me recently why the UWI Linguistics Department isn't more active in promoting the distribution and use of the two works mentioned. Probing that concern, I have discovered the simple truth. The Linguistics Department at UWI is simply not funded sufficiently to undertake this necessary duty. It would be easier to get funding to study why tree frogs croak in a certain way. And the real truth behind that truth, is that we have a colonial hangover in which the language of the former master is the only one worth legitimising. Never mind that it is patois which is more correctly termed our mother tongue while English is our second language. The real issue is the necessity to recognise the importance of the emerging bilingual status of our country and to legitimise that status through the early teaching of English as a second language.

Indeed, the Ministry of Education has officially started on this inevitable road of bilingualism. The Bilingual Education Project was approved and implemented by the Ministry in two project schools in 2004. It involves full and equal use of Jamaican (creole) alongside Standard English in all aspects of the education process from Grades 1 to 4 (so far) at the primary school level. They both function as languages in which literacy and other subjects are taught, and as media of instruction. Results of the Grade Four literacy tests are pending, but indications to date are that the "guinea pigs" are achieving better than the classes before them. This project strongly challenges the traditional negative attitudes towards Jamaican creole.

Perhaps someone should bring Prime Minister Bruce Golding up to speed in view of his recently expressed scepticism of any usefulness in promoting Jamaican creole. A survey of 50 of the 60 members of the Lower House of Parliament in 1999 indicated that 60 per cent of them would support legislation giving official status to Jamaican alongside English. (Quoted from Society for Caribbean Linguistics, "Full Bilingual Education in a Creole Language Situation", Occasional Paper Number 35). The Ministry of Education has an official policy promoting the use of creole as a language of instruction in the early years, even if funds are yet unavailable to effect texts to support this respect for first language.

Let us face facts and act accordingly.

- browngeof@hotmail.com or geofbrown07@gmail.com

Executive Class

Gardens with Gravel

Death to the Mullet!