Jamaican Patois (/ˈpætwɑː/), (known locally as Patois, Patwa, and Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of non-English loan words in Patois come from the west African Akan language. It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language. Jamaican pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from English despite heavy use of English words or derivatives, but the writing system shows commonalities with the English alphabet.