What is Jamaican Patois/Patwah? How much variation is there between different regions of Jamaica and /or across generations, and why? How are younger generations learning, adapting, and using the language in Manchester and beyond?

You have probably come across words from West African languages or Creoles that sound similar and sometimes have the same meaning as words in Jamaican Patwah. What does linguistic research tell us about their history? Some words, such as ‘dutty’ or ‘nyam’, have several possible translations, and some culture-specific words you know, for example ‘Boonoonoonoos/ bunununus’, are difficult to translate into other languages. How might you define them if you were writing a dictionary of Patwah? What about idioms such as ‘ed ah tek dem / ed noh gud’?

In this first edition of “Invisibilised languages on the map”, our language activity, hosted by members of the Linguistic Diversity Collective at The University of Manchester, centres around the description of meanings of everyday words and idiomatic phrases in Jamaican Patwah. We will use wordlists to prompt questions about how dictionaries define meanings. You will have the opportunity to teach others about the meanings of words from your variety of Patwah and even attempt to propose your own dictionary entries.

This event is part of the new Linguistic Diversity Collective programme, which aims to put an invisibilised language on the map. This year, we are celebrating Jamaican Creole which, although spoken by one of the most vibrant communities in Manchester, is still marginalised in public spaces in the city. Presented in partnership with Creative Manchester as part of the Manchester City of Literature Festival of Libraries 2026. 

About our Speakers:

Dawn Edge is a Professor of Mental Health and Inclusivity at the University of Manchester. Her work focuses on tackling inequalities in mental health, especially of Black, Asian and other minoritised communities both in the UK and globally.

Her Manchester-based research has included leading a national Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) to evaluate Culturally-adapted Family Intervention (CaFI) – a bespoke ‘talking treatment’ co-created with people of Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean descent diagnosed with schizophrenia and related psychoses and their families.  

Serge Sagna is a specialist in African Linguistics with over 20 years of fieldwork-based research in language description, language documentation, child language acquisition, multilingualism, and language policy and planning. He is currently a lecturer in Language Science/Linguistics at the University of Manchester. Prior to this, he held research positions at several UK universities: the University of Manchester (2008-2012), the University of Surrey (2012-2015), and the University of York (2017-2021).