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

这个项目将调查西利岛(距离兰德郡尽头，康沃尔28英里的一群岛屿)居民所说的英语的多样性。人口普查数据显示，从19世纪起，锡洛尼亚的原始人口保持了相当大的连续性，然而，它也显示出移民的稳定流动，外来人口约占当地人口的五分之一。在这些人口迁移的同时，当地经济也发生了重大变化：曾经靠渔业和农业维持的岛屿，现在的主导产业是旅游业。这些经济和人口结构的变化使锡利成为一个富有成效的环境，可以在其中考察语言变异所涉及的过程。特别是，这些岛屿的位置使我们能够审查岛屿社区的性质和复杂的社会结构的影响。这不仅将加深我们对“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了解社交网络、传统习俗、家庭纽带、传统和语言变化之间的关系。首先将通过建立该变体的系谱来记录锡利英语变体的历史轨迹。锡利岛博物馆口述历史档案馆保存的录音表明，西里岛英语和康沃尔英语有相似之处，但这种联系在该方言的历史记载中没有观察到(包括查尔斯·托马斯1979年撰写的一篇关于西里岛英语的学术报道)。为了考察这一明显的语言变化，将考虑语言产生和个人对变化及其历史联系的感知之间的相互作用。将考虑语言特征的人口统计和历时分布，并研究这些特征被感知的民间语言方式。这项分析将使用口述历史档案馆保存的老年演讲者的录音，并将这些录音与目前记录的来自同一锡洛尼亚家庭的不同世代的演讲者的采访进行比较。对这种方言的态度将通过在线测试来考虑，在线测试要求当地人、游客和那些从未去过锡利的人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，本项目将展示结合语言变异的产出性和感知性研究的方法。这个项目建立在首席调查员与锡利岛博物馆、锡利岛委员会、五岛学校和锡利岛杰出自然美景地区(AONB)伙伴关系之前的合作基础上。因此，它创新性地将研究嵌入知识交流史。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)强调了协商的重要性，并指出，西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。通过结合对社区的人种学见解，吸引社区成员的参与(通过档案录音和社区合作)，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的社会语言学背景的全面了解，并成为公共参与的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.