Patwa
Jamaican Patois
New Rochelle (NY)Community Profile: The broad term Caribbean English refers to a whole range of Englishes — from highly distinctive creoles to "acrolectal" varieties close to other forms of English — spoken across much of the Caribbean. Beyond the varieties spoken by Jamaicans, Trinidadians, and Guyanese, which are the large Anglophone Caribbean communities in New York, there are also significant populations from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Virgin Islands who have brought their own specific Caribbean cultures to the city. A Caribbean presence in the city goes back centuries, but larger waves started coming in the early 20th century and especially beginning in the 1950s. Today there are individuals from 17 English-speaking nations and territories, with the largest numbers in Brooklyn from Flatbush into Canarsie, but also in southeast Queens and the northeast Bronx. The Labor Day Carnival in Brooklyn is a major annual event that unites all these communities in a common celebration.
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ew York is a major node in the Jamaican diaspora, with the largest numbers living within the Caribbean matrix of Central Brooklyn (where there is now a Bob Marley Boulevard), but large numbers also in southeast Queens and a more predominantly Jamaican area in the northeast Bronx around Wakefield. While American Community Survey data estimates only 8,384 Jamaican Patwa speakers in New York, the same data shows that over 180,000 New Yorkers were born in Jamaica. While many may consider themselves speakers of English, avoiding the distinct Patois (or Patwa) that has developed in Jamaica over the centuries, many are likely to speak or understand Patwa to some degree — with some beginning to value and create in the language.
Note that the language above may be used throughout the New York area — this is just one significant site.