Jamaican Creole is one of the major Atlantic English-lexifier creoles spoken in the Caribbean. In Jamaica, this creole is popularly labelled as ‘Patwa’ (Devonish & Harry 2004: 441). There is a widely-held view in Jamaica that a post-creole continuum exists. The continuum is between Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole (Meade 2001: 19). Many scholars holding this view find it necessary to distinguish among acrolectal, mesolectal and basilectal varieties (Irvine 1994, Beckford-Wassink 1999, Patrick 1999, Meade 2001, among others). Major phonological differences are found between the two extremes. However, a discussion of the phonological differences in the continuum and problems with the theoretical notion of a ‘post-creole continuum’ is beyond the scope of this paper. The aim of this paper is to provide an adequate description of some salient aspects of the synchronic phonetics and phonology of Jamaican Creole based on the speech forms of two native Jamaican Creole speakers, Stacy-Ann Watt, a post-graduate female student at the University of West Indies, Mona, and Racquel Sims, 22 year old female from the parish of St Catherine. Both come from the Eastern parishes of the island.

Mambay is spoken by about 15,000 people in Cameroon and Chad. The majority of the population lives in the North Province of Cameroon, while the remaining group of 3,000 speakers is found immediately across the border in the Mayo-Kebbi Prefecture of southwestern Chad (Grimes 2000: 43, 68). There is little variation among dialects of the language.

The Sandawe language is spoken in the Kondoa district of central Tanzania by approximately 40,000 people. Sandawe has been widely assumed to be a member of the Khoisan language family, but recent research has cast doubt on the position that such a family exists (Güldemann & Vossen 2000). The Sandawe language can be divided into an eastern variety and a western variety. The differences between these two varieties are slight and gradual. The orthography used in the following description was decided upon in 2002 by a group of Sandawe speakers representing different parts of the language area. Early research on Sandawe phonetics and phonology was undertaken by Dempwolff (1916) and Copland (1938). More recent studies are found in Tucker & Bryan (1977), Elderkin (1989, 1992), Wright, Maddieson, Ladefoged & Sands (1995), Maddieson, Ladefoged & Sands (1999) and Hunziker, Hunziker & Eaton (2005).

Zurich German belongs to the High Alemannic subgroup of Alemannic, a dialect group forming part of Upper German (cf. Wiesinger 1983: 835). It is the dialect spoken in the city and in most parts of the canton of Zurich. According to recent census data, the canton of Zurich (whose area roughly coincides with the areal extension of Zurich German) has somewhat more than 1.2 million inhabitants, but since immigration both from other German-speaking areas and from more remote linguistic backgrounds plays an important role for the largest city and the largest canton of Switzerland, the number of speakers of Zurich German is certainly lower.

Georgian is a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language spoken by 4 to 5 million people in the Republic of Georgia, with small diaspora communities spread out in a few republics of the former Soviet Union, Iran, and Turkey. Shanidze (1973) distinguishes six groups of Georgian dialects: Dasavluri (Imeruli, Guruli, Rachuli, Lechkhumuri); Ingilouri; Kartlur-Kakhuri (Kartluri, Kakhuri, Javakhuri, Meskhuri, Kizikuri); Mtiulur-Pshauri (Mtiulur-Gudamakruli, Pshauri); Pkhouri (Khevsuruli, Mokheuri, Tushuri); and Samkhret-Dasavluri (Acharuli, Imerkheuli). The Kartluri dialect is considered the basis of standard or literary Georgian. It is spoken in Kartli, an eastern Georgian province where Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, is located. Standard literary Georgian is discussed here. One male speaker from Tbilisi (the second author) was consulted for all the data presented in the illustration.