Englishes in Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands: PCE, non-PCE or both? Blurred Boundaries in the Atlantic
Englishes in Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands: PCE, non-PCE or both? Blurred Boundaries in the Atlantic
This chapter looks at the interplay of extra- and intra-territorial forces that shaped the evolution and sociolinguistic characteristics of four varieties of English spoken in the Atlantic Ocean: the Bermudas, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and the Falkland Islands. It evaluates general and locally specific forces that operated in the formation of these varieties, with a focus on the nature of various co-existing dialects (ENL, ESL and EFL) in the early contact scenarios that straddle current dividing lines between social and ethnic communities in the respective communities. Some sort of historic ‘push and pull’ operated between extra- and intra-territorial forces in all four varieties. There are domains where the two types cannot be subdivided (attitudes to tourism and immigration) so that external factors (such as settlement policy) have provided the petri dish for the enactment of internal forces at a later stage. This is discussed with reference as to whether dialect contact conditions lend themselves to theorizing and how lesser-known varieties fit into current models of English as a world language.
Keywords: South Atlantic English, language evolution, contact-induced language change, models of English as a world language, koineisation
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