Majority favour patois as an official language of Jamaica

[Kephart, Ronald]

>According to the findings of the survey, "people 
>who understand English will understand patwa 
>(patois) but not vice versa",....

Yeah, well, "understand" is such a fuzzy term. 
I'm reminded of my long-ago interview with a 
Jamaican cane-cutter near Belle Glade, Florida. 
He was telling me about the things he grew in his 
garden, one of which was [kukumbá] (for those not 
familiar with phonetics, "coo-coom-BAH"). OK, it 
seems obvious in hindsight that it's "cucumber," 
but it just didn't click, even when he described 
it, until I was back in my room looking over my 
notes.

Ron