This chapter provides a bird’s-eye overview of the presence of English and English-related varieties in Jamaica from the capture of the island by the English in 1655 to the modern language situation. It argues that the genesis of Jamaican Creole (JC) must be located in the final decades of the seventeenth century, and that enslaved people from Surinam may have influenced the formation of JC. It discusses the relationship between JC and Maroon ‘Deep Language’ and considers the evidence for the impact of substrate languages. The Jamaican creole continuum can be seen as the continuation of early variation, and the diglossic relationship between Jamaican English (JE) and JC betrays the persistence of standard language attitudes which have their origins in the colonial period. Finally, developments such as the emergence of Rasta Talk and the shift to an American model for the ‘speaky-spokey’ register betray the perception of English among many JC speakers as a language which does not belong to them, despite the fact that it exists in the distinctly Jamaican form which has emerged over nearly four centuries.

This chapter discusses “newer” (i.e. in the last 400 years or less) varieties of English spoken in the Caribbean, in particular the relationship between the Caribbean and Central American varieties on the western edge of the Caribbean. It also presents a short discussion of the influences that have shaped these varieties and various popular heuristics for imagining their emergence as well as a description of the geographical locations in the Caribbean where these varieties are spoken. The social contexts of their emergence are also discussed as well as a grammatical sketch pointing out similarities and differences and a discussion of several theoretical issues of relevance to the field.