This is the second edition of the authoritative Dictionary of Jamaican English, first published in 1967. This edition includes a greatly extended supplement and offers a systematic indexing of the extent to which the lexis is shared with other Caribbean countries: Surinam, Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, Nicaragua and Belize. The method and plan of the Dictionary are basically those of the Oxford English Dictionary, but oral sources have been extensively tapped in addition to detailed coverage of literature published in or about Jamaica since 1655. A great deal of care has been taken to trace the etymologies not only of English, Scots and Irish but also of African, Portuguese and Spanish, French, Amerindian, general sea-faring and other words. The Dictionary is thus a mine of information about the Caribbean and its dialects, about the history of English and its dialects, about Creole languages and about general linguistic processes.

Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1967 and then revised as a second edition in 1980, this classic study has never before been available in a paperback edition. The method and plan of the dictionary are basically those of the Oxford English Dictionary, but oral sources have been extensively tapped in addition to detailed coverage of literature published in or about Jamaica since 1655.

The dictionary is a mine of information about the Caribbean and its dialects, about the history of English and its dialects, and about Creole languages and general linguistic processes.

Entries give the pronunciation, part-of-speech and usage labels, spelling variants, etymologies and dated citations, as well as definitions. Systematic indexing indicates the extent to which the lexis is shared with other Caribbean countries: Surinam, Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, Nicaragua and Belize.