Eric Rose
Published: 2018-07-04
Total Pages: 194
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With 3,278 entries and over 13,500 translations and synonyms, the Jamaicasaurus functions as both the only thesaurus of the Jamaican dialect (Patois, Patwa) and the only translation dictionary to go from English to Jamaican. As such, it is an essential resource for anyone interested in Jamaican culture and language, local or foreigner, as it marks a new milestone for Jamaican Patois as a language of increasing global interest while also serving native speakers searching for alternate words and expressions, recent slang, and older terms. For each entry, as many Jamaican translations as possible are given. Therefore, to use this book as a thesaurus, simply look up the English equivalent of the Jamaican word or phrase you have in mind, and there you will see listed all the Jamaican synonyms for that Jamaican word or phrase. The appendix at the back of the book additionally features extensive lists of Patwa expletives and exclamations; odd curiosities; and the Jamaican names for 278 important species of plants and trees used in Jamaica for food, medicine, etc (listed by scientific name first). Finally, and quite importantly, Jamaicasaurus bridges the gap between the common English-based way of spelling Jamaican words and the increasingly popular Cassidy-JLU system preferred by linguists. This edition of the book (the "Jamiekan Spellings Edition") displays Jamaican words in that latter format in order to more consistently represent their true pronunciation. A "Common Jamaican Spellings Edition" favoring the type of English-based spelling still used by most Jamaicans is also available.