Drafts by Hubert Devonish
Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B, 2018
One contribution of 16 to a theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in hum... more One contribution of 16 to a theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
This work represents the outcome of a one week experiment involving a team of two, from the Jamai... more This work represents the outcome of a one week experiment involving a team of two, from the Jamaican Language Unit, at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. The team, at the invitation of collaborators in Aruba, engaged in English Creole Language data collection in the San Nicolas community of Aruba for three days. It then spent the remaining three days transcribing snippets of the data collected and converting these into the beginnings of a community-based grammar of ECA. The first deliverable, in the form of an initial working draft to be presented to the community at the end the week is what this present work represents. It designed to give a sense of what a full description of the language would be like. However, given the constraints of time and the immediate needs of the community, the focus will be on areas of ECA that significantly deviate from standard varieties of International English.
Papers by Hubert Devonish
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 2020
African American Studies Center, Jun 1, 2016
To understand Jamaica's linguistic place in the world, we need to go back to the beginning of Jam... more To understand Jamaica's linguistic place in the world, we need to go back to the beginning of Jamaica as an independent state in 1962. M.G. Smith, a pre-eminent 'Brown' Jamaican social anthropologist of the mid-to late twentieth century carries out his scholarly work using the sociological theory of the plural society (
The U.W.I. faces a growing funding crisis. This crisis can be seen as a product of the considerab... more The U.W.I. faces a growing funding crisis. This crisis can be seen as a product of the considerable growth in demand for UWI's services over the past three decades. This has coincided, ever since 2008, with a period of chronic economic crisis facing the economies, governments, and individual households of most of the contributing territories.
Springer eBooks, 2020
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Environmental Sociology, Jan 2, 2018
Industrialization projects have been promoted as one of the main drivers of economic regional int... more Industrialization projects have been promoted as one of the main drivers of economic regional integration for the Caribbean region. However, surrounding residents to industrial projects are often concerned about the impact on their community, health and the physical environment. Their opinions often become part of a public discourse involving a range of stakeholders, including the community, state and international actors. Using a politics of scale and intersectionality framework, grounded in environmental justice, this article examines how scale and marginality play a role in explaining why regional industrial projects are often difficult to implement, using the case of a proposed Alutrint smelter in Trinidad. Content analysis and thematic coding was applied to 296 national newspaper articles that documented the public discourse on the Alutrint smelter. Quotes on the arguments made by various stakeholders were categorized into international, regional, national and local scales. The results indicate that themes of rights, economic effects, and concerns for health and safety were central to the discourse. However, there was a breakdown in communication across the scales resulting on local community choosing freedom over development.
American Journal of Speech-language Pathology, Aug 15, 2017
To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, &a... more To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012b) in a sample of typically developing 3- to 6-year-old Jamaicans. One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated in the study. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n = 145) and ICS-JC (n = 98) to rate children's speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, strangers). Preschoolers completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP; Dodd, Hua, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2006) in English and Jamaican Creole to establish speech-sound competency. For this sample, we examined validity and reliability (interrater, test-rest, internal consistency) evidence using measures of speech-sound production: (a) percentage of consonants correct, (b) percentage of vowels correct, and (c) percentage of phonemes correct. ICS and ICS-JC ratings showed preschoolers were always (5) to usually (4) understood across communication partners (ICS, M = 4.43; ICS-JC, M = 4.50). Both tools demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .91), high interrater, and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations between the two tools and between each measure and language-specific percentage of consonants correct, percentage of vowels correct, and percentage of phonemes correct provided criterion-validity evidence. A positive correlation between the ICS and age further strengthened validity evidence for that measure. Both tools show promising evidence of reliability and validity in describing functional speech intelligibility for this group of typically developing Jamaican preschoolers.
Caribbean quarterly, 1984
The Geographical Journal, Mar 30, 2023
M and J Grand Orbit Communications eBooks, Feb 22, 2016
Caribbean journal of education, 2007
De Gruyter eBooks, 2004
... origins of JamC, however, its phonological system is now the native phonological system of th... more ... origins of JamC, however, its phonological system is now the native phonological system of the vast majority of language users in Ja-maica. ... Significantly, the acceptability of the phone [iE] in JamE is concentrated in the environment before/r/, eg/beer/>[biE®]~[be®]'beer, bear ...
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Drafts by Hubert Devonish
Papers by Hubert Devonish