Presentation - ECV2024-541

Children’s speech development: Jamaican Creole

Karla N. WASHINGTON, University of Toronto, Canada (karla.Washington@utoronto.ca)
Kathryn CROWE, University of Iceland, Iceland (kcrowe@hi.is)
Melanie BASINGER, University of Arizona, USA (melanie.r.basinger@gmail.com)
Joseph FARQUHARSON, University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaica (joseph.farquharson@uwimona.edu.jm)

Jamaican Creole is spoken primarily in Jamaica but is also spoken in other countries where Jamaicans reside in large communities (e.g., Canada, the United Kingdom). Many Jamaicans are simultaneous speakers of Jamaican Creole and English, demonstrating varying levels of proficiency and movement along the continuum (Jamaican Creole to English). Jamaican Creole is characterized by 21 consonant and 15 vowel phonemes. It is primarily an oral language, but a standardized phonemic orthography has recently been developed. There is one published study of children’s phonological acquisition of Jamaican Creole and English (n = 24, longitudinal design) and two studies of children’s intelligibility. Historically, researchers have focused on adult speakers, with limited knowledge of children’s acquisition, either children with typical development or speech sound disorders. No common speech assessments or interventions are currently available for this population.

Key words:
Jamaican Creole, Standard Jamaican English, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., Basinger, M., & Farquharson, J. (2025). Jamaican Creole speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

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