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

这个项目将调查锡利群岛（距离康沃尔郡兰德角28英里的一组岛屿）居民所说的英语的多样性。人口普查数据显示，自19世纪以来，西隆尼亚的原始人口相当稳定，然而，它也显示了移民的稳定流动，外来人口约占当地人口的五分之一。这些人口的转移伴随着当地经济的重大变化：曾经靠渔业和农业维持的岛屿，现在的主要产业是旅游业。这些经济和人口的变化使锡利成为研究语言变化过程的富有成效的环境。特别是，这些岛屿的地理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。这不仅会增强我们对“一种不太为人所知的英语”的理解（Trudgill 2002: 29），还会帮助我们进一步理解社会网络、传统习俗、家庭关系、遗产和语言变化之间的关系。锡利英语变体的历史轨迹将通过首先寻求建立变体的谱系来记录。锡利群岛博物馆口述历史档案中的记录表明，锡隆英语和康沃尔英语之间存在相似之处，但这些联系在方言的历史记载中没有发现（包括查尔斯·托马斯1979年写的关于锡隆英语的学术记载）。为了研究这种明显的语言变化，我们将考虑语言生产与个人对语言多样性及其历史关联的感知之间的相互作用。将考虑语言特征的人口统计学和历时分布，并研究这些特征被感知的民俗语言学方式。分析将使用口述历史档案中保存的老年说话人的录音，并将这些录音与当今对同一西隆家族不同世代说话人的采访录音进行比较。对方言的态度将通过在线测试来考虑，当地人、游客和那些从未到过锡利的人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。在采用这些方法的过程中，本项目将展示结合生产和基于感知的语言变异研究的方法。该项目建立在首席研究员与锡利群岛博物馆、锡利群岛委员会、五岛学校和锡利群岛杰出自然美地区（AONB）合作伙伴关系之间的合作基础上。因此，它创造性地将研究嵌入到知识交流的历史中。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。AONB管理计划（2010-2014:28）强调了咨询的重要性，并指出“锡利拥有丰富多样的文化联系，涵盖政治、宗教、艺术、文学、民间传说、当地传统和生活方式。”通过结合对社区的民族志见解，吸引社区成员（通过档案记录和社区合作），并获得与岛上持有的锡利有关的历史文献，该项目将全面了解锡利的社会语言学背景，并作为公开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.