Dread Talk examines the effects of Rastafarian language on Creole in other parts of the Carribean, its influence in Jamaican poetry, and its effects on standard Jamaican English. This revised edition includes a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred since the book first appeared and a new chapter, "Dread Talk in the Diaspora," that discusses Rastafarian as used in the urban centers of North America and Europe. Pollard provides a wealth of examples of Rastafarian language-use and definitions, explaining how the evolution of these forms derives from the philosophical position of the Rasta speakers: "The socio-political image which the Rastaman has had of himself in a society where lightness of skin, economic status, and social privileges have traditionally gone together must be included in any consideration of Rastafarian words " for the man making the words is a man looking up from under, a man pressed down economically and socially by the establishment."

Velma Pollard was born in Jamaica in 1937. She lectures in language education at the University of the West Indies. She is the author of two collections of short stories, Considering Woman and Karl and Other Stories, and a novel, Homestretch. Her two collections of poetry, Crown Point and Other Poems and Shame Trees Don't Grow Here . . . but poincianas bloom, were both published by Peepal Tree.

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"Dread Talk is one of the most dramatic examples of the imbrication of language, culture and society to be found anywhere, and no one has explored this topic with as much sensitivity, detail, and insight as Velma Pollard. I regard this book as required reading for sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists, and I recommend it enthusiastically to scholars in social and cultural anthropology, sociology, comparative literature, lexicography, Caribbean Studies, and Africana/Black Studies." John R. Rickford, Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor of Linguistics and Director, African and Afro-American Studies, Stanford University.