Dictionary of Jamaican English

Front Cover
Frederic G. Cassidy, Robert Brock Le Page
University of the West Indies Press, 2002 - English language - 509 pages
5 Reviews
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified

Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1967 and then revised as a second edition in 1980, this classic study has never before been available in a paperback edition. This method and plan of the dictionary are basically those of the Oxford English Dictionary, but oral sources have been extensively tapped in addition to detailed coverage of literature published in or about Jamaica since 1655.

The dictionary is a mine of information about the Caribbean and its dialects, about the history of English and its dialects, and about Creole languages and general linguistic processes.

Entries give the pronunciation, part-of-speech and usage labels, spelling variants, etymologies and dated citations, as well as definitions. Systematic indexing indicates the extent to which the lexis is shared with other Caribbean countries: Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, Nicaragua and Belize.

 

What people are saying - Write a review

Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
User Review - Flag as inappropriate

This book is a classic, a milestone in the study of Caribbean languages and the product of decades of research and hundreds of interviews. The entries are meticulously documented both historically and by area, with variants and explanations. It is in many ways an encyclopedia of Caribbean culture.
Any language changes and moves on, and in certain respects the DJE will now be out of date, but that in no way diminishes its value. This was the first major dictionary of any Caribbean language (and the "95% rubbish" dismissal on this page is way off the mark.) 

User Review - Flag as inappropriate

maganda

All 5 reviews »

Selected pages

Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition
vi
Dictionaries and Glossaries Cited
xxx
DICTIONARY OF JAMAICAN ENGLISH 1
491
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Dictionary of Jamaican English
Frederic G. Cassidy,Robert Brock Le Page
No preview available - 1967
Dictionary of Jamaican English
Frederic G. Cassidy,Robert Brock Le Page
No preview available - 1967
Dictionary of Jamaican English
Frederic Gomes Cassidy,Robert Brock Le Page
No preview available - 1980
View all »

Common terms and phrases

1864 Grisebach 1952 FGC StAnn African attrib BA BL banana bean Beckwith Bennett bird bitter BL G blue boiled breadfruit Browne bush called chiefly Clar coco colour common dance English etym evid Fawcett FGC Port FGC StAnd FGC StM fish flowers fruit grass green ground grows head Indian Jamaica Jekyll John kind known leaves look Lunan MANGO meaning Mountain Murray negro pepper perh person piece Pioneer plant plantain play Port prob quot Rampini resembling sb bot sb dial sb obs seeds sense similar skin Sloane Song Spanish species stick sugar sweet term thing tree unknown usually variety weed West wild WIMJ woman wood yellow

References to this book

About the author (2002)

F.G. Cassidy was a well-known linguist, the author of Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica and the chief editor of The Dictionary of American Regional English.

R.B. Le Page taught at the University of the West Indies and the University of York. He is the author of numerous publications, including Creole Language Studies, The National Language Question and Vernacular Literacy.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Dictionary of Jamaican English
TitleDictionary of Jamaican English
EditorsFrederic G. Cassidy, Robert Brock Le Page
Editionreprint
PublisherUniversity of the West Indies Press, 2002
ISBN9766401276, 9789766401276
Length509 pages
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan