 GLEEditor
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Hello,
We are publishing a book that has a significant amount of Jamaican Patwa in it. Having done some research, there is an ISO 639-3 language code (jam, listed as Jamaican Creole English) that we can use, but there are some further issues.
As Patwa is an oral language, there are a number of variant spellings. The “standard” in the Dictionary of Jamaican English is based on British orthography, but the author prefers to use a variant spelling that is less colonial. For example, the word for a child is spelt pikni in the manuscript, but it appears in the Dictionary of Jamaican English as pickney. If we use the variant spellings and tag them as Jamaican Patwa then would any screen reader with a Patwa voice pronounce them correctly? Or would it be simplest not to tag to risk mispronunciation?
Thanks!
Alan
September 26, 2025 at 1:07 pm
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 APLN Moderator
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Hi! Apologies, there seems to be an error occurring with your question. Can you repost your question as a reply here?
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 pm
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GLEEditor
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Hi,
Yes there seems to be a problem right now where the original post in a topic isn’t visible. My question relates to a forthcoming book that uses Jamaican Patwa words. There’s an ISO code for Patwa, but there are various different approaches to spelling as it’s a primarily oral language. The Dictionary of Jamaican English uses an orthography based on British English, but some people (including the author I’m working with) reject that orthography as colonial. For example, the word for child, is spelt pickney in the Dictionary of Jamaican English, but my author uses pikni. If we code pikni as Jamaican Patwa will it be pronounced correctly despite the non-standard spelling?
There are also a lot of small words like mi (my in English) and de (the in English) that I’m inclined not to tag as they are used a lot and they’ll break up the flow of the screen reader if it’s constantly pausing and switching language.
October 1, 2025 at 3:00 pm
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APLN Moderator
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Hi,
We recommend testing a few words both with the Patwa tag and without it to determine which option sounds more appropriate. The decision will ultimately depend on your preference for how the word sounds out. If you choose not to use the Patwa tag, we recommend including a note about this in the accessibility summary so readers using assistive technology are aware beforehand.
October 2, 2025 at 10:59 am
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