Andrea Sudbury

The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: Falkland Islands English

Introduction The Falkland Islands comprise a group of 780 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 480 km off the east coast of Argentina. Together, the islands cover 12,173 km 2 (slightly larger than Jamaica and Kosovo, slightly smaller than Connecticut, about half the size of Wales and a third the size of Baden-Wurttemberg), with a resident population of 2,955, according to the 2006 census. There are two main islands, East and West Falkland, and the capital is Stanley, on East Falkland, where 85 per cent of the resident population live. In addition to the resident population, around 2,000 British military personnel are based at RAF Mount Pleasant, 50 km west of Stanley. Politically, the Falklands are an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. Closely associated with the Falklands, but now technically independent of them, are South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) (capital Grytviken), another UK Overseas Territory situated 1,390 km east-southeast of the Falklands. South Georgia, at 3,528 km 2 the same size roughly as Luxembourg, Saarland or the county of Dorset in England, was once an important whaling station. The 1909 census found a population of 720, of which over 90 per cent were Scandinavian, predominantly Norwegian. The whaling stations began to decline in the mid twentieth century, with the last closing in 1966, and today there is no settled civilian population, although there are two permanently staffed British Antarctic Research Stations, as well as Government Officers and curators staffing the museum and shop that are visited by passing cruise ships.

The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: The South Atlantic Ocean

1. Introduction Daniel Schreier, Peter Trudgill, Edgar W. Schneider and Jeffrey Williams Part I. The British Isles: 2. Shetlands and Orkney Gunnel Melchers and Peter Sundkvist 3. Channel Islands Mari C. Jones Part II. The Americas and the Caribbean: 4. Canadian maritimes Michael Kiefte 5. Newfoundland and Labrador Sandra Clarke 6. Honduras/Bay Islands Ross Graham 7. White Caribbean Jeffrey P. Williams 8. Bahamas Jeff Reaser, 9. Dominican Kokoy Michael Aceto 10. Anglo-Argentinian English Julian Jefferies Part III. South Atlantic Ocean: 11. Falkland Islands David Britain and Andrea Sudbury 12. St Helena Daniel Schreier 13. Tristan da Cunha Daniel Schreier Part IV. Africa: 14. White Zimbabwean English Susan Fitzmaurice 15. White Kenyan English Thomas Hoffmann Part V. Australasia and Pacific: 16. Eurasian English in Singapore Lionel Wee 17. Peranakans English in Malaysia and Singapore Lisa Lim 18. Norfolk Island and Pitcairn Peter Muhlhausler.

New Zealand English: The variables of early New Zealand English

By and large there are no fundamentally unhealthy sounds in New Zealand speech … However as a race, you are not very good at short vowels. You would, for instance, rather say ‘yeees’ than ‘yes’; ‘mulk’ rather than ‘milk’; and ‘bull’ rather than ‘bill’. Your diphthongs frequently expire in a drawl or resolve themselves into triphthongs … Your long vowels tend to be placed in the wrong part of the mouth – ‘harm’, ‘there’ for example. And the things done to the final ‘y’ sound – ‘Anthonee, gloree!’ … Casting a quick (and tactful) glance at your consonants, may I observe that, as a whole, New Zealand tongues are idle. The ‘l’ sound is treacherous. Your plosives, too, tend to disappear without trace. And just a word about the way you ‘manhandle’ the name of your country … [I]s it to be ‘New Zealand’ or ‘Nu Zilland?’ (Trinity College Examiner, Andrew Morrison, ‘The New Zealand Voice’, NZ Listener 19 (491) November 1948, p. 7) Introduction In this chapter, we present the main phonological variables important in the development of New Zealand English. We discuss each variable in turn. Firstly, we present what is known (or can be inferred) of the variables antecedents in relevant parts of the British Isles. Secondly, we consider what has been said in the written records about the variable in New Zealand. Mostly these written comments are complaints about ‘improper’ language, but are revealing about the history of New Zealand English.