The Empire Speaks Back: Northern Irish English as a Post-Colonial Dialect

学术界内外对英语方言的兴趣重新燃起。前者是因为语言学理论对方言的关注程度较高。这也可能是因为有更广泛的资源可用，如www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk和www.ncl.ac.uk/Necte。英国广播公司的“声音”(www.bbc.co.uk/voices/)以及对这些地区的政治关注再次激发了民众的兴趣。也有压力要求承认非本土(包括后殖民时代)英语及其文学作品的有效性。这些不同受众的需求已经被畅销书满足了，比如《麦克布莱德》(1993)和权威作品，比如科特曼等人。(2004)。然而，目前对不列颠群岛特定地区的深入研究仍然很少见。虽然造成方言差异的地理/历史事实以及研究这些差异的方法在教科书和期刊中都有详细的讨论，但前者往往集中在一般性的方面，而后者则集中在具体的特点上。缺乏详细的、以田野调查为基础的、特定品种的学术文献。因此，这个项目的主要目标是记录/分析北爱尔兰英语(NIRE)的主要方言，并将这些方言置于全球范围内以及不列颠群岛其他英语的背景下。第二个目标是利用这项研究提高北爱尔兰(NI)非学术受众对他们方言的起源/历史的认识，以及这些问题对整个地区当代方言多样性的影响。除了将我的专业知识带到这个项目中(见《出版物清单》)，我关注NIRE的理由是因为它在非凯尔特不列颠群岛的品种中是独一无二的。和威尔士英语一样，NIRE最初是作为第二语言学习的。这一情景源于说英语/苏格兰方言的人在该地区的殖民，从中世纪开始，在爱尔兰历史上所谓的“种植园时期”达到顶峰。詹姆士一世发起了这项运动，他打算在阿尔斯特“安插”新教徒，以平息爱尔兰本土的叛乱。从1605年到1697年，大约有20万人从苏格兰移民，延续了几代人在两个地区之间迁徙的传统(见视觉证据1)。该计划还说服了来自伦敦等城市中心和诺福克等更多农村地区的英国定居者进行殖民。然而，到目前为止，最多的人是从西北米德兰兹郡移民过来的。这种密集的殖民过程创造了一种创新类型的英语出现的可能性。这一新变化的特点是：(1)形式新颖；(2)吸收了土著语言的特点&其他特点是爱尔兰语与新定居者的苏格兰/英语方言混合造成的。有趣的是(当这些种类的迁徙出现时，这种情况并不少见)，现代变种的NIRE仍然保留着这种混合的遗传。此外，移民/土著人口的后裔之间的种族分裂在该地区的文化上保留了殖民主义。因此，天主教徒每年都会庆祝“圣帕特里克节”这样的活动，而他们的新教邻居则会纪念“光荣的第十二天”，庆祝1690年国王威廉三世博伊恩的胜利确保种植园计划的最终成功。对于训练有素的观察者来说，这种接触的语言后果(包括NI中语言和种族认同之间的关联)同样清楚，尽管以英语为母语的人较少意识到这些后果。它们渗透到这些社区使用的语言的方方面面(口音、语法和词汇)。此外，将成为该项目重点的许多特征已经传播到新移民在殖民后密集定居的地区。因此，这项研究也将对最近成为热门话题的外来方言研究产生重要的影响。

There has been a resurgence of interest in English dialects within academia & outside it. The former is due to a greater focus on dialect within linguistic theory. It may also result from the wider availability of resources like: www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk & www.ncl.ac.uk/necte. Popular interest has been encouraged by BBC 'Voices' (www.bbc.co.uk/voices/) as well as a renewed political focus on the regions. There has also been pressure to recognise the validity of non-native (including post-colonial) Englishes & their literatures. The demands of these diverse audiences have been met by popular books, like Mc Bride (1993) & authoritative works such as Kortmann et al. (2004). However, in-depth, current research on specific regions in the British Isles remains rare. While the geographical/historical facts inducing dialect differences & the methodologies for investigating these are discussed at length in textbooks & journals, the former tend to concentrate on generalities & the latter on specific features. There is a lack of detailed, fieldwork-based, scholarly documentation of particular varieties. Hence, this project's main goal is to record/analyse the major dialects of Northern Irish-English (NIrE) & to situate these globally as well as within the context of other British Isles' Englishes. A secondary goal would be to use the research to raise awareness amongst non-academic audiences in Northern Ireland (NI) of their dialects' genesis/history & the impact of these issues on contemporary dialectal diversity across the region. In addition to bringing my particular expertise to this project (see 'Publications List'), my rationale for focusing on NIrE is due to its uniqueness amongst non-Celtic British Isles' varieties. Like Welsh English, NIrE was initially learned as a second language. This scenario arose from the region's colonization by speakers of English/Scots dialects, beginning in the Middle Ages & reaching a peak during what is termed 'The Plantation Period' of Irish history. James I initiated this & he intended to 'plant' Protestants in Ulster to quell indigenous Irish rebellions. From 1605-1697, around 200,000 migrated from Scotland, continuing a tradition of migration between the regions that had already endured for generations (see Visual Evidence 1). The scheme also persuaded English settlers to colonize, hailing from urban centres like London as well as more rural areas like Norfolk. The greatest numbers by far, though, migrated from the NW Midlands. This intensive colonization process created the possibility that an innovative type of English could emerge. This new variety is characterized by: (i) novel forms; (ii) the incorporation of features drawn from the indigenous language & others caused by the mixing of Irish with the Scots/English dialects of the new settlers. Interestingly (and not uncommonly when migratory movements of these kinds arise), modern varieties of NIrE still retain this mixed heritage. Moreover, the colonization is preserved culturally in the region by ethnic divisions between the descendents of the migrant/indigene populations. Thus, Catholics celebrate events like 'St. Patrick's Day' while their Protestant neighbours commemorate 'The Glorious Twelfth' each July, celebrating the day in 1690 when King William III's Boyne victory ensured the ultimate success of the Plantation scheme. The linguistic consequences of this contact (including the correlation between language and ethnic identity in NI) are equally clear to the trained observer, though native speakers are less conscious of them. They permeate all aspects of the speech used within these communities (accent, grammar and vocabulary). Moreover, many of the features that are to be the focus of this project have travelled to regions that have been intensively settled post-colonization by NI migrants. Hence, this research will also have important implications for the study of transported dialects, which has recently become very topical.