As Jamaican reggae/dancehall music has become very dominant in our culture, artists play a huge role in the development of our language, known as patois, as they are constantly coining words and phrases that baffle even older Jamaicans and certainly foreigners. So as people worldwide swing to our music and Jamaica is a well -known tourism destination in the Caribbean , since most Jamaicans do not automatically speak English but only when required, this dictionary is critical to travellers as well music lovers. This is 6th edition of the Original Dancehall Dictionary, a publication which since 1993, has been doing an invaluable job in helping the world understand our language and the cartoons not only assist in the translation but also they add to the hilarity of the publication.

Who hasn't heard of the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt or the great musician Bob Marley? No one I dare say but what do you know about their homeland, Jamaica? Tour Jamaica gives visitors, interested persons and potential visitors to the beautiful island of Jamaica a comprehensive picture of what to expect and do in order to have a wonderful vacation and to make sure you understand everything around you, your own private dictionary which interprets Jamaican words and phrases, is provided at the back of the book. Apart from introducing readers to its world famous attractions such as picturesque and challenging Dunns River falls, the mysterious Blue and John Crow Mountain range and the Cockpit Country which is full of biodiversity, we also tell you about the numerous white sands beaches, numerous beautiful waterfalls, the wildlife, food, drinks, crime, arts and craft, music festivals, sports, the parishes etc. In addition, the book also includes a dictionary explaining popular Jamaican words and phrases. In fact, after reading Tour Jamaica, all you need to do is to book your ticket, come to Jamaica and have a wonderful time.

With the emergence of Dancehall music on the world,scene, the language which accompanies it has,gained wide exposure. Many who hear and sometimes,use these words may not be fully aware of their,meanings. Now, a learned source records his deep,understanding of the expressions, providing their,English equivalents and very often their usage in,context. Including a history of the Dancehall,scene and a brief guide to Jamaican patois, this,dictionary will prove a revelation of Dancehall,culture for the uninitiated. Illustrated.

This book is the first systematic cross-disciplinary survey on the use of Jamaican English in Ethiopia, describing the dynamics of language acquisition in a multi-lectal and multicultural context. It is the result of over eight years’ worth of research conducted in both Jamaica and Africa, and is a recognition of the trans-cultural influence of the “Repatriation Movement” and other diasporic movements. The method and materials adopted in this book point to a constant spread and diffusion of Jamaican culture in Ethiopia. This is reinforced by the universalistic appeal of Rastafarianism and Reggae music and their ability to transcend borders. The data gathered here focus on how an Anglophone-based Creole has developed new speech-forms and has been hybridized and cross-fertilized in contact situations and by new media sources. The book focuses on the use of Jamaican English in four particular domains: namely, school, street, family, and the music studio. Its findings are drawn from an exceptional range of sources, such as field-work and video-recordings, interviews, web-mediated communication, artistic performance and relevant transcriptions. These sources highlight five topics of relevance—language acquisition and choice; English and Jamaican speech forms; hegemonic and minority groups, Rastafarian culture and Reggae music—which are explored in further detail throughout the book. These salient features, in turn, interface with the dynamics of influencing factors, reinforcing circumstances, significance and change. The book represents a journey to the “extreme-outer circle” of English language use, following a circular route away from Africa and back again, with all the languages used (and lost) along the slavery route and inside the plantation complex developing into creolized speech forms and Creoles. Such language use is now making its way back to Africa, with all the incendiary creativity of Reggae and resonant with Rastafarian language.

At a time when there is the great debate in the USA about which countries interfere in other's democratic elections and a time of great turmoil in Venezuela, this is a most relevant and timely publication. For the current events in Venezuela, including the shortage of basic food, state sponsored terrorism, civil unrest, hyper-inflation etc. mirror conditions during the cold war era in the small nation state of Jamaica when they too experimented with socialism. It was during that period too that the Russian KGB, American CIA and Cuban DGI were all active on the ground trying to influence the outcome of their elections. At that time, the author Joan Williams and her entire family faced grave danger which forced her to have to temporarily send her children away, as she was determined that the socialist/communist threat which not only brought in its wake, many mass murders, numerous state organized massacres and even treason by a member of the then government which was at the time under the tutelage of foreign communist agencies, should not succeed in depriving her and her people of their freedoms. Williams who has visited Cuba four times since then, (the last being in 2014,) says she has no regrets about the activities she participated in and dangers she faced but remains sympathetic to the Cuban people who she reveals are deprived, browbeaten and hopeless, much as the Venezuelan people are becoming today. While the first part of this powerful memoir deals with the struggle to preserve their freedoms in Jamaica, Williams also shares with readers the devastating period she went through when she lost her only son. He was murdered when he was only 24 years old. He died when a vicious killer fired one bullet into his heart. Although this happened over two decades ago, in her book “Looking Back……,” she admits that it took her many years before she could even talk about the event without breaking down totally. In the chapter entitled “To Hell and Back” where she bares it all, she says in part “the worst part was the sleepless nights though, especially when I teetered on the verge of suicide. There was also the inability to eat for weeks on end as not only had my sense of taste gone, but it was as if no stomach existed at all. That is when I went through every event of my life trying to understand why such a terrible thing had happened to me, for I did think I was a good person and terrible tragedies should never happen to good people!” This gripping narrative by Williams takes readers through a roller coaster of various emotions including those which she had to confront when she looked back a few years ago and realized that all the evidence pointed to the possibility that her son was murdered, not by a “criminal” but by someone in the Jamaican police force in her country where the police are sworn to “To serve and protect”. She has provided a mountain of evidence to substantiate her claims. This strong lady has however been able to recover from all her tragedies and struggles and risen like a phoenix to say years later that she is now one of the happiest persons in the world! Certainly not because her son was murdered, for she quotes the late Rose Kennedy; “It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don't agree. The wounds remain. Time-the mind, protecting its sanity - covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone” but because “I have come to realize that your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” This is definitely a powerful and timely book not only for women but also persons interested in history, politics, sociology and personal triumphs.

The complete guide to one of the most influential forms of music in the world, "The Rough Guide to Reggae" leaves no stone unturned when it comes to profiling such stars as Buju Banton, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and, of course, Bob Marley. From Ragga to Dub to Ska, all forms of the genre are covered. Photos.

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English presents all the slang terms from The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in a single volume. Containing over 60,000 entries, this concise new edition of the authoritative work details the slang and unconventional English of from around the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge’s own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning. New to this second edition: a new preface noting slang trends of the last eight years over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia, reflecting important developments in language and culture new terms from the language of social networking from a range of digital communities including texting, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and online forums many entries now revised to include new dating and new glosses, ensuring maximum accuracy of content. The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

An ethnography of Dancehall, the dominant form of reggae music in Jamica since the early 1960s.