6 Jamaican Creole Proverbs from the Perspective of Contact Linguistics in some degree toward the right or the left. At one end is the type of Jamaica Talk that aims towards the London ‘standard’ or educated model, and, in many Jamaicans’ usage, reaches it extremely well […]. At the other end of the scale is the inherited talk of peasant and labourer, largely unaffected by education and its standards. This is what the linguists call ‘creolized’ English, that is, an English learned incompletely in slave days, with a strong infusion of African influences, and continued incompletely in slave days, with a strong infusion of African influences, and continued traditionally in much the same form down to the present. (Cassidy 1961: 2) The “London standard” (standard English) is an official language in Jamaica and […] is still expected in the conduct of government business, in the law courts, the schools, the mass media, in religious worship and in all other contexts where the written language is required. Its use is still associated with the elite, which up to approximately fifty years ago consisted of mainly the white and the near-white members of the population. (Christie 2003: 2) Christie observes that it is acceptable to Jamaicans to use “a few Creole words or phrases in a speech in Parliament, they would be very surprised and probably outraged if the speaker gave the entire speech in Creole” (2003: 2). The language of “peasant and labourer,” as Christie labels the creole, confirms Cassidy’s (1961) view that this variety of Jamaican is […] still associated with the poorest members of the society, who are mostly black, and with rural as contrasted with urban dwellers. Its speakers are seen as exclusively labourers, small farmers, domestic helpers, small craftsmen and others belonging to the same social class as these. (1961: 2) Cassidy’s recurring question regarding Jamaican Talk and elements constituting “Jamaicanisms” resulted in his search for words “which have received a decidedly higher degree of use in Jamaica than elsewhere” (1961: 3). Thus, Cassidy classifies “Jamaicanisms” into five main types: 1) preservations, 2) borrowings, 3) new formations, 4) transferred meanings, and 5) special preferences. Preservations are words which are currently considered poetic or archaic in standard English but are used in Jamaica. These words were learned and used by Jamaican folk during the British domination and have remained almost unchanged since the times of the plantations. They are still in use in Jamaican society. Examples of preservations are as follows: moonshine rather than moonlight; tinnen ‘made or consisting of tin’ (Merriam-Webster); or roug-
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