science

Jamaican Maroon Creole

Jamaican Maroon Creole is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jamaican Maroon Creole rather than just read about it. In short: Jamaican Maroon language, Maroon Spirit language, Kromanti, Jamaican Maroon Creole or deep patwa is a ritual language and formerly mother tongue of Jamaican Maroons. It is an English-based creole with a strong Akan component.

Key takeaways

Jamaican Maroon Creole belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jamaican Maroon Creole to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jamaican Maroon Creole from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jamaican Maroon language, Maroon Spirit language, Kromanti, Jamaican Maroon Creole or deep patwa is a ritual language and formerly mother tongue of Jamaican Maroons. It is an English-based creole with a strong Akan component. It is distinct from usual Jamaican Creole, being similar to the creoles of Sierra Leone (Krio) and Surinamese Creoles such as Sranan and Ndyuka. Today, the Maroon Spirit language is used by Jamaican Maroons and Surinamese Maroons (largely Coromantees). Another distinct ritual language (also called Kromanti) consisting mostly of words and phrases from Akan languages, is also used by Jamaican Maroons in Myal rituals including some involving possession by ancestral spirits during Kromanti ceremonies or when addressing those who are possessed and sometimes used as a kind of code. Kromanti is also a branch of the Myal religion in Jamaican Maroon communities. The term "Kromanti" is used by Maroon participants in such Myal ceremonies to refer to their language spoken by ancestors in the distant past, prior to the creolization of Jamaican Maroon Creole. This term is used to refer to a language which is "clearly not a form of Jamaican Creole and displays very little English content" (Bilby 1983: 38). While Kromanti is not a functioning language, those possessed by ancestral spirits are attributed the ability to speak it. More remote ancestors are compared with more recent ancestors on a gradient, such that increasing strength and ability in the use of the non-creolized Kromanti are attributed to increasingly remote ancestors (as opposed to the Jamaican Maroon Creole used to address these ancestors). The language was brought along by the maroon population from Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) to Nova Scotia in 1796, where they were sent in exile. They eventually traveled to Sierra Leone in 1800. Their creole language highly influenced the local creole language that evolved into present day Krio.

Some phonological characteristics of Jamaican Maroon Creole Bilby discusses several phonological distinctions between Jamaican Creole and Jamaican Maroon Creole. Vowel epithesis: Some words in the Maroon Creole have a vowel in the final syllable, compared to Jamaican Creole. Some examples are:

fete "to fight" wudu "forest" mutu "mouth" Liquids: Many words that have a lateral liquid /l/ in Jamaican Creole have a trill /r/ in Maroon Creole. Some examples are:

priis "pleased" braka "black" bere "belly" /ai/ to /e/: There are several instances where the "deep creole" uses /e/ while the "normal creole" uses /ai/.

See also Jamaican Maroon religion Spirit possession Sierra Leonean Krio West African Pidgin English

References

Bilby, Kenneth (1983). "How the "Older Heads" Talk: A Jamaican Maroon Spirit Possession Language and Its Relationship to the Creoles of Suriname and Sierra Leone". New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids. 57 (1/2): 37–88. doi:10.1163/13822373-90002097. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jamaican Maroon Creole

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jamaican Maroon Creole claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jamaican Maroon Creole before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jamaican Maroon Creole ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jamaican Maroon Creole

In research: Jamaican Maroon Creole appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jamaican Maroon Creole in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jamaican Maroon Creole is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Akan language, English-based pidgins and creoles, Extinct languages of North America, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jamaican Maroon Creole outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jamaican Maroon Creole in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jamaican Maroon Creole means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jamaican Maroon Creole out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jamaican Maroon Creole in simple terms?

Why does Jamaican Maroon Creole matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jamaican Maroon Creole?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jamaican Maroon Creole.