PREDICTABLY an Observer lead story last Monday titled “Patois Bible” has set off a raging controversy, never far below the surface, over the usefulness of recognising the Jamaican dialect or patois as a formal language.

The plan by the Bible Society of the West Indies to publish a patois version of the Bible, that will cost $60 million and take 12 years to complete, sparked a flood of letters to the editor from Jamaicans at home and abroad and occupied large chunks of talk show air time last week.

While some persons see the move as brilliant, and a big step in championing the cause of the Jamaican language, critics have denounced it as a waste of time, effort and money. In any event, they argue, a patois version of the Bible would not be taken seriously and would somehow undermine the sacredness of the holy Scriptures.

Dr Anthea Morrison, head of the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, St Andrew is among those who feel the money could be better spent.

“We endorse the validity and power of Jamaican patois and I believe patois is a symbol of our identity and an expression of our culture and we want all Jamaicans to be bi-lingual,” she said, “but I wish that the sum could be spent in improving education at the primary level, or even be given to a particular school.”

Her UWI colleague, Clive Forrester had no such qualms. He said it was time for the government to begin teaching patois in primary schools and teaching English as a second language.

“Anybody who knows anything about linguistics, knows that we start with the mother tongue of the child, ensure that they have adequate literacy skills in the mother tongue and then transfer that to the second language. We’ve tried to ignore this for too long,” he said, adding that “research has proven time and again that the person who learns in this manner, will be better able to grasp a second language”.

Forrester noted that, without waiting on the government, at least one school – the Hope Valley Experimental School – was using a bi-lingual system and teaching their students both patois and English.

“They start in Grade One and go up to Grade Four, and students are now literate in both English Language and Patois. They have text books, so they can both read and write creole,” Forrester told the Sunday Observer.

He refuted claims that patois would be harder to read. “There is an official writing system for Jamaican (patois) and it’s no more difficult to read than any other language. As with anything else, if the motivation to do it is high, people will learn it, if it’s low, they won’t.”

As for a patois version of the Bible, Forrester was all for it, saying that it would attract the masses to reading the Scriptures. “The church leaders will agree with it because they know that many people are not reading the King James Version, simply because they just don’t understand what’s in it.”

But head of the English Department at Northern Caribbean University, Carol Fider sees the move as unnecessary. “I wonder what purpose it would serve? It’s okay for persons to express their creativity by doing this, but at least for now, patois is a spoken language, how will it be read? The man in the street speaks it, but how is he going to read the patois?”

Fider said she doesn’t see a time in the future when her department would have to teach patois as a language. “Right now we’re concentrating on English. We need our students to be able to understand English…People need to relate in English in the workplace both here and overseas.”

In contrast, church leaders warmed to the idea of a patois Bible, with many believing it will generate much needed interest in the reading of the Scriptures.

Head of the umbrella Jamaica Council of Churches, Rev Carl Johnson who last week described the project as “worthy and commendable”, said those who thought it would somehow devalue the sanctity of the Bible, were misguided.

“A patois version would not be replacing the traditional English version of the Bible. We need to understand that the way people speak has undergone myriad of changes and if the aim is to enhance understanding, then this is the way to go.”

President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in western Jamaica, Pastor Glen Samuels agrees. “We can’t box God into any one language. Is God only available for the English? What about the Africans, the Germans, and others? The most important issue here is preserving the accuracy of the original text, being true to the original message and not losing out on that.”

He said the King James English Version, was not the “be all and end all of all versions”. “The King James version that we know today, was actually born out of the Bishops and Geneva versions of the Bible. The King decided to put the two together so he could unify his empire, and Jamaica received that version, as we were a part of that Empire…”

President of the Association of Evangelicals, Rev Peter Garth argued that a patois translation of the Bible was “absolutely relevant to our reality”. He was concerned that most Jamaicans might not be able to read a patois version, but believed the audio versions being released by the Bible Society would be very popular.

“The fact is that our politicians are using patois, many of our public speakers are using patois to express themselves. So why shouldn’t the preachers as well?” he asked.

Though cautiously endorsing the plans for a patois version, the Roman Catholic Church’s Father Michael Lewis warned translators to be careful, so as not to change the meaning of the text.

“It’s good to translate the Bible so that as many people as possible can have access to it. But we must be sure that certain criteria are met. For example, that people adhere to the principles of biblical scholarship and are faithful to the original language. We must make sure that it is a serious work and not anything that is done on a whim. It’s going to be very difficult, because there are no expressions in patois for some of the expressions in the Bible,” Fr Michael added.

But if some Jamaicans are uncertain about the legitimacy of Jamaican patois and whether it should be used to translate the Bible, academics in the United Kingdom are embracing it as a full-fledged language. Last year, the University of Birmingham introduced a Jamaican patois course, the first of its kind in the world.

Lynette Mitchell, a student at Birmingham University who was born in England to Jamaican parents, was required to take the Jamaican patois course as a core part of her PhD studies on black vernacular as a reading strategy for interpreting the Bible.

She told the Sunday Observer that Level One to Three of the patois course required a minimum of 150 tuition hours. “Level One and Two of the course are equivalent to our GCSE (General Certificate in Secondary Education) here in the UK, and Level Three of it, is equivalent to ‘A’ Levels here. Once you reach level three, you can move on to a Diploma in Public Service Interpreting, specialising in Jamaican (patois). This is because the Institute of Linguistics in the UK has given the Jamaican official declaration as a language.”

She said students had to write reports, letters and creative pieces and conduct extensive research into the language. Essays and oral presentations also had to be made using the Jamaican language.

“One of the greatest challenges I had was being able to structure my sentences accurately and speak the language fluently in true Jamaican fashion. It was key for me to translate sentences into Jamaican, so I had to constantly ask myself, how would a Jamaican say this?”

Mitchell fully endorsed the concept of a patois Bible. “It is one’s cultural context hat informs understanding. It’s about valuing the language that we speak from birth, rather than seeing it as ‘local and loose’. For too long, we’ve been taught that patois is bad or broken English. This is a direct result of colonial attitudes which view anything from a black origin as less than or not credible.”

She also levelled criticism at persons who believe a patois version of the Bible, would take away from its sacredness. “What we read, whether it be the King James Version or the NIV (New International Version), is actually a translation.

Said Mitchell: “The crux of the matter is that few people understand the history of translation and are led into a false sense of security that somehow the English version is an authentic account.

“As black people, we’re not taught to see ourselves within biblical history, so we feel a sense of unease or outright opposition to the prospect of translating the Bible into creole. If history has shown the importance of translating the Bible into other languages that communicate the message more clearly and powerfully, why not the Caribbean context?”