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Jamaican Patois

English-based creole spoken in and around Jamaica; it additionally takes influence from various African languages, particularly Akan
Intangible creole Q35939
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Summary

Jamaican Patois is a creole[1]. It ranks in the top 2% of creole entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (8,588 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Country: Jamaica[3], Panama[4], Costa Rica[5]
  • Instance of: modern language[6], natural language[7]
  • Subclass of: Western Caribbean Creole[8], nation language[9]
  • Writing system: Latin script[10], Cassidy/JLU orthography[11]
  • Commons category: Jamaican Patois[12]
  • Wikimedia language code: jam[13]
  • Has part(s): Limonese Creole[14], Bocas del Toro Creole[15], Moskitian Creole[16]
  • Topic's main category: Category:Jamaican Patois[17]
  • Number of speakers, writers, or signers: 3,200,000[18]
  • Native label: Patwa[19]
  • Different from: Jamaican English[20]
  • Indigenous to: Jamaica[21]
  • Exact match: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/JAM[22], https://apics-online.info/contributions/8[23]
  • Ethnologue language status: 5 Developing[24]
  • Related category: Category:Jamaican Patois pronunciation[25]

Why It Matters

Jamaican Patois has Wikipedia articles in 23 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[26] It is known by 79 alternative names across languages and contexts.[27]

Related Entities

Bob Marley Costa Rica Jamaica Kingston Panama Usain Bolt Yohan Blake

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . scriptsource.org. Retrieved . scriptsource.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . scriptsource.org. Retrieved . scriptsource.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . scriptsource.org. Retrieved . scriptsource.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . iso639-3.sil.org. iso639-3.sil.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . Language. op.europa.eu. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . Ethnologue. Retrieved . ethnologue.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [26] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [27] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Jamaican Patois. Retrieved October 11, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/jamaican-patois
MLA “Jamaican Patois.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 11 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/jamaican-patois.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_jamaican-patois_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Jamaican Patois}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/jamaican-patois}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-11}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Jamaican Patois — https://4ort.xyz/entity/jamaican-patois (retrieved 2026-10-11)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 6w ago · عُثمان · 2026-08-26 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Writing system → Latin script, Cassidy/JLU orthography
    Country → —
    Instance of → creole, modern language, natural language
    Indigenous to → Jamaica
    + 15 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ Exact match: http://data.linguistik.de/bll/bll-ontology#bll-133081222"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.