ABSTRACT
Jamaican Creole (JC) is an English-lexicon creole language coexisting with English. The creole language may evolve into a normal language, becoming standardized and performing the entire range of communicative functions of the speech community. The vast majority of young Jamaicans, have JC as their native language in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the post-creole continuum model is relevant to the speech behaviour of a minority within the speech community. Standard Jamaican English (SJE) operates as the only official language, language of education and government administration in Jamaica. It is also the primary language within which literacy is exercised, and the main language of public communication in the print and electronic media. A crude macro-level statement can be made that English is the language of government administration, the education system, the legislative and legal systems, formal writing and for formal communication in the mass media.
