Indo-European · ISO 639-3 jam
Jamaican Creole English Language Patwa
Jamaican Creole English is an Indo-European language spoken by about 3.2 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Jamaican Creole English is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Jamaican Creole English
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- North Sea Germanic
- Anglo-Frisian
- Anglic
- Later Anglic
- Middle-Modern English
- Macro-English
- Guinea Coast Creole English
- Caribbean English Creole
- Western Caribbean Creole
- Jamaicanic
- Jamaican Creole English
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Jamaican Creole English language
Jamaican Creole English (Patwa) is spoken by about 3.2 million people, which makes it the 238th most spoken language in the world — just behind Fon (3.2 million) and ahead of Waray (Philippines) (3.2 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Jamaicanic group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Jamaican Creole English spoken?
Jamaican Creole English is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Jamaica (2.7 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Jamaica — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Jamaican Creole English is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Jamaican Creole English is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Trinidadian Creole English, Nigerian Pidgin, Krio, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroon Pidgin, English and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 jam.
Frequently asked questions about Jamaican Creole English
How many people speak Jamaican Creole English?
Where is Jamaican Creole English spoken?
What language family does Jamaican Creole English belong to?
What is Jamaican Creole English called in Jamaican Creole English?
Is Jamaican Creole English an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.