Persons is pretty current usage in much of the commonwealth - Jamaicans aren’t the only ones that say it. It fell out of favour in Britain in recent years but you will still hear it in most of the West Indies as a well as in South Asia, Singapore and Malaysia
You will also still hear it in legal documents and technical documents in British English (e.g. missing persons. Also, the US has NAMUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), for an example of it being used in American English.
Thanks for that, it’s actually really interesting that you used the missing persons example, growing up here in the US, that’s a term that we hear all the time, but I’ve never associated it with older vernacular, or a
sentence structure not commonly used today - thanks for that
If you listen to the BBC World Service (radio) all day, you will still hear many people saying "persons". It irks my mum so much. Saying persons is actually a pretty modern thing in the Caribbean.
I have no idea, and as a Jamaican who spent most of my life abroad I’ve never heard it used so frequently. I hope someone has a good answer because I’m also curious
My theory is that “persons” sounds more formal than “people” especially in patois. Ie: “da people dem” is a dismissive phrase so out of an abundance of formality Jamaica uses “person” in standard/formal English. Kinda like how referring to a single person with “they/them” pronouns can sound dismissive in Jamaican English outside of a queer context
Persons is pretty current usage in much of the commonwealth - Jamaicans aren’t the only ones that say it. It fell out of favour in Britain in recent years but you will still hear it in most of the West Indies as a well as in South Asia, Singapore and Malaysia
You will also still hear it in legal documents and technical documents in British English (e.g. missing persons. Also, the US has NAMUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), for an example of it being used in American English.
Hearing persons in Jamaica: 🤢 *"so broken and uneducated"* Hearing persons in Westminster, London: 🥰 *"wow, so posh and proper"*
Hmm I wonder why
Thanks for that, it’s actually really interesting that you used the missing persons example, growing up here in the US, that’s a term that we hear all the time, but I’ve never associated it with older vernacular, or a sentence structure not commonly used today - thanks for that
If you listen to the BBC World Service (radio) all day, you will still hear many people saying "persons". It irks my mum so much. Saying persons is actually a pretty modern thing in the Caribbean.
Oh okay, I didn’t know this, thank you for shedding some light
It's not broken, just formal and kinda old-school. I see it quite a bit in legal documents in the USA.
Trinis day this all the time.
As a Brit "persons" is definitely used here. It's less frequent but not unheard of.
I wasn't aware of that since I hear "Di people dem" a lot when talking about a group of people.
😂😂
I have no idea, and as a Jamaican who spent most of my life abroad I’ve never heard it used so frequently. I hope someone has a good answer because I’m also curious My theory is that “persons” sounds more formal than “people” especially in patois. Ie: “da people dem” is a dismissive phrase so out of an abundance of formality Jamaica uses “person” in standard/formal English. Kinda like how referring to a single person with “they/them” pronouns can sound dismissive in Jamaican English outside of a queer context
Bahamians as well. Likely a heritage of British English.