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Bible translated into Jamaican patois

A controversial new £250,000 translation of the Bible into Jamaican patois is underway. Already 40% of the New Testament has been translated in draft form.

Patois is spoken by five million round the world. Almost all Jamaicans know it, but only recently have the middle and upper classes spoken it in public.

The Bible Society are working with the University of the West Indies to develop a writing system that will effectively put patois down on paper for the first time - defining rules, punctuation, spelling and capitalisation. The 12-year project is much bigger than just another Bible translation - it is the first official recognition of patois itself.

Traditionalists are concerned that translating the Bible into patois is another example of 'dumbing down'.

What Luke 10: 30-31 in patois reads like:

Jiizas ansa im se, “Wan man a go dong fram Jeruusilem tu Jeriko an som tiif grab im. Dem tek we im kluoz, biit im an go we lef im haaf ded. Wan priis a go dong di siem ruod, si di man, an paas pan di ada said.”

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