I'm charmed by the lilting english spoken in Jamaica, which the locals refer to as "Pagwha" {sp}. Does anyone know anything about the origins of this dialect? I've heard the term "Jamaican Creole"...is pagwha a form of creole? And what specifically defines a language as being "creole"? There's a creole in Louisiana which sounds nothing like that of Jamaica.

The British influence on pagwha is obvious, but it almost sounds like a bit of french as well.

If anyone can make sense of my jumble of questions, i'd love to be edumacated =)


EDIT: i thought of patois and suggested it to a local, but he said "nope, it's different... it's 'P-A-G-W-H-A'" (but he may have said "P-A-D-W-H-A"; i can't remember, which is why i wrote [sp]).