Pronunciation
Jamaican Standard pronunciation, while it differs greatly from Jamaican Patois pronunciation, is nevertheless recognizably Caribbean. Giveaway features include the characteristic pronunciation of the diphthong in words like "cow", which is more closed and rounded than in Received Pronunciation or General American; the pronunciation of the strut vowel /ĘŚ/ (again, more closed than the RP or GenAm version, though not as closed as in the Creole); semi-rhoticity, i.e. the dropping of the "-r" in words like "water" (at the end of unstressed syllables) and "market" (before a consonant); but not in words like "car" or "dare" (stressed syllables at the end of the word). Merger of the diphthongs in "fair" and "fear" takes place both in Jamaican Standard and Jamaican Patois, resulting in those two words (and many others, like "bear" and "beer") becoming homophones. (Standard speakers typically pronounce both closer to "air", while Creole speakers render them as "ear"). The short "a" sound (man, hat) is very open, similar to its Irish versions.
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