Race/racism and the late Prof. Frederic G. Cassidy

[Beverly Flanigan]

It's common for many Jamaicans to speak both Standard Jamaican English
(SJE)--which is not really "British" English but sounds closer to it than
to American English--and Jamaican Creole (JC).  The schools teach SJE, but
the vernacular of most people is JC, especially young people in their peer
groups; a varied continuum exists between the two.  I suspect this is what
is meant in the passage below.

At 09:03 PM 11/1/2006, you wrote:
>On the web I find a memorial resolution of the University of Wisconsin
>faculty containing the following information:
>
>"Cassidy's interest in Creole English came naturally enough -- he was born
>in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1907, to a Canadian father and a Jamaican mother.
>He grew up hearing their two varieties of standard British English and the
>Creole variety of the Black majority as well."
>
>I'm not certain how to interpret this, but it sounds like his mother was
>Jamaican but not a member of the Black majority.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
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