‘A step in the right direction’

Following the addition of over 100 new languages to Google’s free translation service late last year, Jamaicans across the world have something extra to smile about thanks to Patois’ official inclusion to the list of supported languages.

The move has been hailed by users of the service as transformative, with one linguistics lecturer calling it a “step in the right direction”.

“The inclusion to Google Translate places our language among many others when it comes to accessibility to non-native speakers. Not to mention this also improves the status of the language, so it is a really big deal,” said Dr Kadian Walters, lecturer at the University of the West Indies.

Dr Walters explained that the inclusion in a world-renowned service like Google Translate also elevates the status of the language.

“Jamaican was once thought to be a bastard language, a dialect, (and) a broken form of English. But with it now being on a platform like Google Translate, it allows speakers across the world to look at it in a different light,” she said.

“Not only that, but for the language to be included on Google Translate, that must mean it has a system, rules and grammar – all things people would have said are missing from Patois. Once again proving it is indeed a language and deserving of that status.”

‘NATIONAL PRIDE’

Patois, or Jamaican Creole, has long been a staple in popular culture across the world. But the language has risen to even further notoriety thanks to the entertainment industry and its key players.

Movies like the ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ biopic, whose directors paid extra special care in getting the sounds of the language correct, help propel Patois to new heights.

“The Bob Marley movie was the first international film production to consult the experts on the language because the producers really wanted the characters to sound Jamaican,” Walters said.

“And then you have the likes of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B who are all over Jamaican TikTok using the language and sounding pretty good at it. So, these instances help propel the language and add build a sense of national pride.”

Linguists like Dr Walters are hoping that this national pride will continue to grow until their ultimate goal is achieved: constitutional reform.

“Overall, our push is really for Jamaican to be made an official language. And when we say for Jamaican to be made or declared an official language alongside English, we really mean that we want to see Jamaican being used in public formal domains just as how we see English being used by the government and being used by agencies of the state,” Walters said.

There is still a long way to go until that time, but the linguist is confident change is coming.

editorial@gleanerjm.com