ENTITY · CONCEPT

Cassidy / JLU orthography

Well supported

A phonemic writing system for Jamaican Patois first proposed by linguist Frederic Cassidy in 1961 and later adopted and revised by the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) at the University of the West Indies; it uses the Roman alphabet without diacritics, doubled vowels for length ('aa', 'ii', 'uu') and digraphs such as 'ch', and is the system used for the Jamaican-Patois Wikipedia and the patois New Testament.

Share a memory Correct this record Add a source lead

At a glance

Type: concept
Confidence: Well supported
Era: Open era →

Style, language, faith & wider culture

Connections

Watch & listen

Open source ↗

The Jamaican Language Unit at The UWI celebrates 15 years

WEB · rights discovery only · press source

Jamaica Gleaner archive reference.

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · Well supportedWriting - and toasting - the Jamaican language

How Patois travelled from playground stigma to page, pulpit and microphone.

Debate & reception

How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →

debate

How should Patois be spelled?

A documented disagreement over writing Jamaican Creole, framed from both sides: proponents of the phonemic Cassidy/JLU orthography argue it treats the language on its own terms with a consistent system; others prefer English-based spellings that readers already recognise, seeing the phonemic system as unfamiliar or off-putting. Neutral framing; no verdict. Sources: Jamaican Language Unit, UWI; Jamaica Gleaner archive.

Stance: phonemic Cassidy/JLU orthography vs familiar English-based spelling