Scilly Voices: Language Variation and Distinctiveness on the Isles of Scilly

这个项目将调查锡利群岛（一组距离康沃尔郡兰德斯角28英里的岛屿）人口所说的英语的多样性。人口普查数据显示，从世纪开始，原始的希隆人人口有相当大的连续性，但也显示了稳定的移民流，移民约占当地人口的五分之一。这些人口转移是与当地经济的重大变化同时发生的：曾经依靠渔业和农业维持的岛屿现在的主导产业是旅游业。这些经济和人口的变化使锡利一个富有成效的环境中，研究语言变异所涉及的过程。特别是，群岛的位置使我们能够研究岛屿社区的性质和复杂社会结构的影响。这不仅将增强我们对“一种鲜为人知的英语变体”的理解（Trudgill 2002：29），还将帮助我们进一步理解社交网络、传统习俗、家庭纽带、遗产和语言变化之间的相关性。锡利群岛博物馆（Isles of Scilly Museum）的口述历史档案（Oral History Archive）中的记录表明，西荣英语和康沃尔语英语之间有相似之处，但这些联系在方言的历史记录中没有观察到（包括查尔斯托马斯在1979年撰写的西荣英语的学术记录）。为了研究这种明显的语言变化，语言产生和个人对变化及其历史关联的看法之间的相互作用将被考虑。语言特征的人口统计学和历时分布将被考虑，并将研究这些特征被感知的民俗语言学方式。这项分析将使用口述历史档案馆中的老年发言者的录音，并将这些录音与来自同一个希隆家族的不同世代的发言者的现代访谈记录进行比较。对方言的态度将通过在线测试来考虑，当地人、游客和从未去过锡利的人将被要求评估与他们听到的声音样本相关的地方和社会属性。在采取这些方法，这个项目将展示结合生产和基于感知的语言变异研究的方法。该项目建立在主要研究者和锡利群岛博物馆，锡利群岛理事会，五岛学校和锡利群岛杰出自然美景区（AONB）合作伙伴关系之前的合作基础上。因此，它创新地将研究嵌入知识交流的历史中。这种关系将是充分理解语言特征如何与言语社区的社会生活相关联的关键。《澳大利亚土著民族协会管理计划》（2010-2014：28）强调了协商的重要性，并指出“锡利拥有丰富多样的文化协会，涵盖政治、宗教、艺术、文学、民俗、当地传统和生活方式。“通过将民族志的见解结合到社区中，吸引社区成员（通过档案记录和社区合作），并获得与岛屿上的锡利有关的历史文献，该项目将实现对锡利社会语言学背景的全面了解，并作为公众参与社会语言学研究的典范。

This project will investigate the variety of English spoken by the population of the Isles of Scilly (a group of islands 28 miles off Land's End, Cornwall). Census data shows considerable continuity in the original Scillonian population from the nineteenth century onwards, however, it also shows a steady flow of immigration, with incomers accounting for approximately one fifth of the local population. These population shifts have occurred alongside significant changes to the local economy: once sustained by fishing and farming industries, the islands' predominant industry is now tourism. These economic and demographic shifts make Scilly a fruitful environment in which to examine the processes involved in language variation. In particular, the islands' location permits us to examine the nature of insular communities and the influence of complex social structures. This will not only enhance our understanding of 'a lesser-known variety of English' (Trudgill 2002: 29), it will also help us to further understand the correlation between social networks, traditional practices, family ties, heritage and language change.The historical trajectory of Scilly's variety of English will be documented by first seeking to establish the variety's genealogy. Recordings held in the Isles of Scilly Museum's Oral History Archive suggest that there are similarities between Scillonian English and Cornish English, but these connections were not observed in historical accounts of the dialect (including an academic account of Scillonian English written in 1979 by Charles Thomas). In order to examine this apparent language change, the interaction between language production and what individuals perceive about the variety and its historical associations will be considered. The demographic and diachronic distribution of language features will be considered, and the folklinguistic ways in which these features are perceived will be studied. The analysis will use recordings of elderly speakers held in the Oral History Archive, and compare these with present-day interviews recorded with speakers of different generations from the same Scillonian family. Attitudes to the dialect will be considered via on-line tests where locals, tourists and those who have never been to Scilly are asked to evaluate the localities and social attributes associated with the voice samples they hear. In taking these approaches, this project will demonstrate methods for combining production and perception-based studies of language variation. This project builds upon previous collaborations between the principal investigator and the Isles of Scilly Museum, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the Five Islands School and the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership. As such, it innovatively embeds the research in a history of knowledge exchange. This relationship will be key to fully understanding how language features correlate with the social life of speech communities. The AONB Management Plan (2010-2014: 28) highlights the importance of consultation and notes that 'Scilly has rich and varied cultural associations that span politics, religion, art, literature, folklore, local tradition and lifestyles.' By combining ethnographic insights into the community, engaging community members (via archive recordings and community collaboration) and gaining access to the historical documentation relating to Scilly held by on the islands, this project will achieve a comprehensive understanding of Scilly's sociolinguistic context and serve as an exemplar of publicly engaged sociolinguistic research.