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South Atlantic English is a variety of the
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
which is spoken on islands in the Southern hemisphere. South Atlantic English is spoken on
Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcano, volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascensi ...
and
Saint Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...
, but its spread on other islands is unknown. An intelligibility with
British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...
, a linguistic variety of the same country, exists. There are fewer than 10,000 speakers of South Atlantic English. South Atlantic English does not have official status anywhere.


Saint Helena English

On Saint Helena, the variety of South Atlantic English is locally referred to as 'Saint-Speak' or speaking 'Saint'. It originated in the 17th century; the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
established a colony on St Helena in 1658. The island has had a Dutch rule in the 1670s, and settlers from France, West Africa, Cape Verde, the Indian subcontinent and Madagascar. Nonetheless, English has been the largest influence on the island's language.


Phonology

South Atlantic English on Saint Helena has several phonological markers, some related to its non-rhoticity, others to its sound changes.


Rhoticity

Saint Helena English is non-rhotic, so /r/ is pronounced only if a vowel follows it in the same word - e.g. the r-sound is pronounced in 'flora', but not in 'floor'. Despite this general rule of thumb, some speakers also pronounce the /r/ if it is followed by a vowel in the following word - to use the previous example, Saint speakers would pronounce the r-sound in 'floor and wall'. In addition, some speakers also add in an r-sound during some vowel sounds, for example 'idea' is pronounced ''ideear'' when the word following it begins with a vowel sound - these two phenomena are called
linking and intrusive R Linking R and intrusive R are sandhi phenomena wherein a rhotic consonant is pronounced between two consecutive vowels with the purpose of avoiding a hiatus, that would otherwise occur in the expressions, such as ''tuner amp'', although in isola ...
respectively. Furthermore, the intervocalic /t/ is often pronounced as a flap - for example, the t-sound in the words 'butter, letter, better' are the same as in the General American pronunciation, whereas in British English they would be usually pronounced either like the t in 'top' or the glottal stop in 'uh-oh'. Again, this is more typical of rhotic English varieties, so it is a curiosity.


Phonetic differences

Here are some other prevalent phonetic markers in Saint Helena English: *
Th-stopping ''Th''-stopping is the realization of the dental fricatives as stops—either dental or alveolar—which occurs in several dialects of English. In some accents, such as of Indian English and middle- or upper-class Irish English, th ...
- where the English ''th''-sound is pronounced as ''t'' or ''d,'' for example 'thank you' is pronounced tank you'''. * Vowel raising and some vowel lengthening occurs quite noticeably, for example: ** /ɒ/ has shifted to /ɔ/, for example the word 'job' is pronounced /d͡ʒɔb/ ''jorb''. ** /æ/ has shifted to /e/, for example the word 'bar' is pronounced /ber/'','' more like ''bear''. ** /ɛ/ has shifted to /e/ or /i/, for example the word 'bed' is pronounced /beːd/ ''beed''. * /w/ and /v/ have mostly merged into a single phoneme - that is, the v-sound and w-sound are mostly interchangeable, as seen in the local adage ''St Helena was created by two wolcanos''. * /t/ at the end of a word is frequently
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
or dropped entirely, therefore a 'project' is pronounced as ''prorjek''. * Some sounds are added as though superfluous, for example 'fishing' is pronounced ''fishenin. * Syllabic 'r' is often dropped, for example 'funeral' (in which the second syllable is a syllabic 'r' in some rural British English dialects) is pronounced ''fewnel''. * Many word-final consonant clusters are simplified by deleting one of the consonants - 'build' becomes ''bil'', and 'strength' becomes ''streng'.''


Vocabulary

Where 'a couple' in English means two things, in Saint it can be two or more. A good/nice ''couple'' means 'a lot more than two' or 'enough for your liking' - for example, ''Have you a good couple of chips'' means 'take as many
potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...
as you want'. Likewise, ''a good couple of days'' means 'not for some time'. Many words in Saint are contractions of English phrases - for example ''mussie'' for 'must be/have', ''most'' for 'almost', ''miggies'' for 'hurry up' (from 'make haste'), and ''bitta'' for 'a bit of'. The word ''stay'' does not have a temporary connotation in Saint, so asking ''Where you chirren stay?'' means 'Where do your kids live?'. The standard greeting for friends and relatives is ''lurvy'', from the Southern English 'Luvvie'. The expression ''phew ya'' is a standard exclamation, and the adjective ''some'' can be used to mean 'quite' or 'very'. For example, ''Phew ya it some hot!'' means 'Wow, it's quite hot!'.


Grammar

Saint Helena Southern Atlantic English has several curious non-standard grammatical features: * Saint Helena English also lacks plural marking after numerals - for example ''twenty pound, four month, nine boat, many house''. * The words ''see'' and ''lah'' are appended as interrogatives to confirm understanding, or to elicit a response from a listener. Questions do not have inversion or ''do''-support. For example, ''Him have nine boat'' means 'He has nine boats', but ''Him have nine boat see?'' would turn it into a question, asking 'does he have nine boats?'. * When forming the past tense, the English auxiliary 'have' is replaced by ''done''. * In addition, the indefinite article 'a' is often replaced by ''one -'' for example, ''Us done give y'all one beer'' means 'We have given you a beer'. * The language allows null subjects, for example the sentence ''Met with two girl on you boat'' is grammatically valid, and the matter of who met the two girls on the listener's boat is inferred through context. * Possessive pronouns are often simplified, for example ''What you name?'' mean 'what's your name?' * The first person plural pronoun, regardless of its place in the sentence, is always 'us' - for example, ''us done bin out'' means 'we have been out'. * The second person plural pronoun varies, but ''y'all'' is the most preferred form. * Demonstratives (like 'this' or 'that') are often omitted * The suffix -ed for the past tense is also omitted - both this and the prior point are illustrated by the phrase ''You never come Town much them days'', meaning 'You never came to Jamestown much back then'. * St Helena English allows multiple negation, for example ''You no eat no food''. * The double modal construction is also sometimes used, for example ''Might be ill, but I may can go by shop'' implies despite the speaker's illness, it's possible the speaker has the ability to enter the shop.


Sample words and phrases

Some Saint vocabulary is more similar to American than British, and this is most likely related to the temporary movement of locals to
Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overs ...
in the 1940s, where they encountered Americans at the USAF base and picked up their terminology. Here are some sample words and phrases in Saint Helena South Atlantic English. : * 'Yes' is pronounced /ɪɹs/ ''eeirce'' - like 'pierce' without the ''p'' sound. * 'August' is pronounced ''Ow-gus'' * 'July' is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable - ''JEW-lee'' * 'Buoy' is pronounced like the American ''boo-ee,'' and 'Boutique' is pronounced ''Bow-teek'' * ''Chips'' and ''pants'' refer to the American, not British, understandings -
potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...
and
trousers Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants ( American, Canadian and Australian English) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending ...
.


Tristan da Cunha English

Tristan da Cunha English, locally called Tristanian, shows several unique features due to the island's isolation.


Phonetics and phonology

* The vowel sequence /ei/ is shortened and non-diphthongized, but its length is preserved, so 'base' is pronounced /be:s/ ''bes''. *
T-glottalization In English phonology, ''t''-glottalization or ''t''-glottalling is a sound change in certain English dialects and accents, particularly in the United Kingdom, that causes the phoneme to be pronounced as the glottal stop in certain positio ...
occurs medially, for example at the t-sounds in 'better, letter, butter'. * There is extensive insertion of the breathy sound before various vowels, for example in the phrase ''Happles 'n horanges''. This is most notable in the way that the locals refer to Tristan - as the 'island', which is pronounced more like ''hiland''. * There is devoicing of the z-sound and z-sound medially, as well as at the end of plurals and genitives ** The letter s at the end of 'rites' and 'rides' is voiceless in both cases. ** Likewise, the zh-sound in 'television' becomes more like ''televishon.'' * Many vowels in Tristanian are lengthened noticeably, which is also seen in Saint Helenian English. * Also like Saint Helenian, Tristanian is non-rhotic, but does have
linking and intrusive r Linking R and intrusive R are sandhi phenomena wherein a rhotic consonant is pronounced between two consecutive vowels with the purpose of avoiding a hiatus, that would otherwise occur in the expressions, such as ''tuner amp'', although in isola ...
sounds.


Grammar

Many features are comparatively similar to Saint Helenian English. Tristanian's grammar includes: * A lack of plural marking, such as ''two man, four street, ten finger.'' * Distinct second person plural pronouns are used, such as ''y'all islander'' and ''you's there''. * Verbal inflectional morphology is highly simplified, such as ''She see six planet''. * The pronoun "them" is used to mark definite noun phrases, as seen in sentences like "They never eat much them days.". This links with the omission of demonstratives, which are instead implied through context * Expressiveness drives peculiarities in Tristan da Cunha English, including double comparatives (e.g., "I like that more better") and double negation (e.g., "nobody never come out or nothing"). * In questions, inversion is not used, but rising intonation signifies a question, as in constructions like "Where they is?" * In Tristanian, the uninflected form of a verb is used in compound and place names - for example in the place name ''Ridge-where-the-Goat-jump-off.''


References


Further reading

*Daniel Schreier, Peter Trudgill. ''The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction.'' Cambridge University Press, Mar 4, 2010 pg. 10 * ''Tristan da Cunha: History, People, Language'' by Daniel Schreier and Karen Lavarello-Schreier (2003, Battlebridge, 88 pages). * "Speak Saint ⋅ Saint Helena Island Info ⋅ About St Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean". ''sainthelenaisland.info''. Retrieved March 18, 2024. {{English dialects by continent Dialects of English Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha culture