Dread Talk

by Pollard, Velma

• ISBN13: 9780773520301
• ISBN10: 0773520309
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ Pr

Summary

Dread Talk examines the effects of Rastafarian language on Creole in other parts of the Carribean, its influence in Jamaican poetry, and its effects on standard Jamaican English. This revised edition includes a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred since the book first appeared and a new chapter, "Dread Talk in the Diaspora," that discusses Rastafarian as used in the urban centers of North America and Europe. Pollard provides a wealth of examples of Rastafarian language-use and definitions, explaining how the evolution of these forms derives from the philosophical position of the Rasta speakers: "The socio-political image which the Rastaman has had of himself in a society where lightness of skin, economic status, and social privileges have traditionally gone together must be included in any consideration of Rastafarian words " for the man making the words is a man looking up from under, a man pressed down economically and socially by the establishment."

Author Biography

Velma Pollard is senior lecturer in language education and dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the First Edition	ix
Rex Nettleford
Preface	xi
Dread Talk -- The Speech of the Rastafari in Jamaica	3	(16)
The Social History of Dread Talk	19	(34)
Rastafarian Language in St Lucia and Barbados	53	(16)
Dread Talk -- The Speech of Rastafari in Modern Jamaican Poetry	69	(17)
The Lexicon of Dread Talk in Standard Jamaican English	86	(8)
Globalization and the Language of Rastafari	94	(17)
The Road of the Dread	109	(2)
Lorna Goodison
Bibliography	111