Description

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A Jamaican language primer for native speakers and beginners alike. There are six sections: Origins, Grammar, Orthography, Vocabulary, Texts and a 50-page illustrated dictionary, presenting the basilectal register or "broad patois," using a modified Cassidy system for writing Jamaican. Selections include works by Claude McKay, Louise Bennett, Joan Andrea Hutchinson and Carolyn Cooper, alongside excerpts of classics from Laozi, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, and Dickens, translated into Jamaican for the first time.

About the Author

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Larry Chang grew up in Brown's Town, St. Ann, Jamaica, a major mid-island market center, where he was immersed in the gamut of Jamaican speech from all linguistic regions of the island. He combines his training in art and design with love of words, and activism. His other books are Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing and Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk. He lives in Washington DC.