Patois is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, patois can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant. In colloquial usage of the term, especially in France, class distinctions are implied by the very meaning of the term, since in French, patois refers to any sociolect associated with uneducated rural classes, in contrast with the dominant prestige languagespoken by the middle and high classes of cities, or as used in literature and formal settings.
Etymology
The term patois comes from Old French patois 'local or regional dialect', possibly from the verb patoier 'to treat roughly', from pate 'paw', or “pas toit” meaning “not roof”, from Old Low Franconian *patta 'paw, sole of the foot' .
Examples
In France and other Francophone countries, patois has been used to describe non-standard French and regional languages such as Picard, Occitan, and Franco-Provençal, since 1643, and Catalan after 1700, when the king Louis XIV banned its use. The word assumes the view of such languages being backward, countrified, and unlettered, thus patois being potentially considered offensive when used by outsiders. Jean Jaurès said "one names patoisthe language of a defeated nation". However, patois doesn't have an offensive connotation in Switzerland, or in France anymore. The vernacular form of English spoken in Jamaica is also referred to as Patois or Patwa. It is noted especially in reference to Jamaican Patois from 1934. Jamaican Patois language comprises words of the native languages of the many ethnic and cultural groups within the Caribbean including Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Amerindian, and English along with several African languages. Some islands have Creole dialects influenced by their linguistic diversity; French, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and others. Jamaican Patois is also spoken in Costa Rica and French Creole is spoken Caribbean countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana in South America. Often these patois are popularly considered "broken English", or slang, but cases such as Jamaican Patois are classified with more correctness as a Creole language; in fact, in the Francophone Caribbean the analogous term for local basilectal languages is créole. Antillean Creole, spoken in several present or formerly French islands of the Lesser Antilles, includes vocabulary and grammar of African and Carib origin, in addition to French. It dialects often contain folk-etymological derivatives of French words, for example label=none which is a syncopated variant of the standard French phrase label=none but has been identified by folk etymology with label=none, "to wash"; therefore label=none is interpreted to mean "a place to wash". Other examples of Patois include Trasianka, Sheng, and Tsotsitaal. Patois has also been spoken by some Uruguay citizens, generally immigrants located in the south of Uruguay, mainly arriving from Italy and France, coming from Piedmont.
