Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A teacher points to a blackboard in a school in Jamaica. As Jamaica continues to loosen its ties with the British monarchy, ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Walk into any government office, courtroom or classroom in Jamaica, and you’ll be expected to speak the official language, English. But venture into the street, tune into a radio ...

What's worse than a bad movie? If you ask linguist Joseph Farquharson, he might say a movie that makes a caricature of the distinct patois of Jamaican accents. When asked to be an advisor on the new ...

The battle lines have softened somewhat, but there is still substantial opposition to patois in the pulpit. Critics say it will dilute Scripture and undermine the already weak hold many poor Jamaicans ...

Diversity matters, even when it comes in the form of a doll. With research that shows dolls with unrealistically thin bodies have had negative effects on young girls’ self-esteem, a movement has ...

We may not think of Jamaica as a bilingual society, but local bloggers are assuring us that it is. English and Patois—or Patwa, as it's often written—are widely spoken, but the Jamaican mother ...

KINGSTON, JAMAICA—When English teacher Faith Linton first proposed translating the Bible into Jamaica’s patois tongue in the late 1950s, most people who heard the idea shook their heads. Some on the ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Chet Hanks is defending his use of speaking in a Jamaican patois in a ...

Beloved educator, linguist, writer and poet Velma Pollard, known for her passion for Jamaica's Patwa language, passed away at her Kingston home on February 1 at the age of 87, leaving the regional ...

Parliamentary rule that only English is allowed has reignited debate about language, legitimacy and postcolonial identity When the Jamaican MP Nekeisha Burchell stood up to give her maiden speech, she ...