english_caribbean · Jamaica
Jamaican English
Jamaica · Jamaica
Jamaican English is a systematic variety with its own vowel inventory, not a modified version of anyone else's. TRAP, BATH and PALM collapse into a single low vowel, so 'cat', 'bath' and 'calm' share it. It is non-rhotic, and where a rhotic accent has an r-coloured vowel this one has a centring diphthong: 'start' is [stɑət], 'north' is [nɔət], 'force' is [foəs]. TH is a stop, so 'thing' begins with [t] and 'this' with [d]. The weak vowels are full: commA and lettER are [a], not schwa, which is a large part of why the rhythm is heard as more even than in southern British or American English. Note that Jamaica has a continuum from Jamaican Patois (a creole with its own grammar) through mesolectal speech to acrolectal Jamaican English; this preset models the English end, and the Patois FACE and GOAT diphthongs ([ie] in 'bieks', [uo] in 'buot') belong to the other end and are not applied here.
Live example
Transformed live against this preset's phonetic matrix.
Hear it
A/B where you're starting from against this accent, for the same sentence. That first clip is your own accent when you've said how you speak, and your language's reference variety when you haven't — the player says which.
Compare — Where you're starting from vs. the accent you're building
Active features
Every phonetic parameter that deviates from this schema’s diffing anchor, with a plain-English gloss.
| Feature | Value | Meaning | Drill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Languagelanguage | en | Drill | |
| Mixed Languagesmixed_languages | — | Drill | |
| S Treatments_treatment | standard | Drill | |
| D Intervocalicd_intervocalic | standard | Drill | |
| D Finald_final | standard | Drill | |
| R Infinitiver_infinitive | standard | Drill | |
| R Initialr_initial | approximant | Drill | |
| N Final Velarizationn_final_velarization | No | Drill | |
| Final Consonant Dropfinal_consonant_drop | none | Drill | |
| Vowel Reductionvowel_reduction | crisp_open | Drill | |
| Syllable Timingsyllable_timing | stress_timed | Drill | |
| Th Realizationth_realization | stopping | Drill |