Part of
The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and beyondEdited by Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber and Alexander Kautzsch
[Varieties of English Around the World G49] 2014
► pp. 231–248
Edited by Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber and Alexander Kautzsch
[Varieties of English Around the World G49] 2014
► pp. 231–248
On cafeterias and new dialects
The role of primary transmitters
This chapter argues that we need to differentiate potential founding populations in high-contact scenarios and classify different types of transmitters. Based on evidence from South Atlantic English, the claim is that, during the formative years of new dialects, some members of the community are more crucial than others, simply because they are more likely to transmit features to young children given their social role in the community. The impact of so-called primary transmitters may help explain why some dialects are extraordinarily influential in contact scenarios, despite the fact that its speakers represent a minority. This calls for a revision of current theories of new-dialect formation and for a more socially-informed view of koinéization processes.
References (50)
Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma Press.
. 1983. Creole languages. Scientific American 249(1): 59–69. 
. 1984. The language bioprogram hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7(2): 173–188.
Brander, J. 1940. Tristan da Cunha 1506 ‒ 1902. London: Allen and Unwin.
Britain, D. 2002. Diffusion, levelling, simplification and reallocation in past tense BE in the English Fens. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6(1): 16–43.
. 2005. Innovation diffusion, ‘Estuary English’ and local dialect differentiation: The survival of Fenland Englishes. Linguistics 43(5): 995–1022.
. 2009. One foot in the grave? Dialect death, dialect contact and dialect birth in England. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 196–197: 121–155.
Britain, D. & Sudbury, A. 2010. Falkland Islands English. In D. Schreier et al. (eds), 209–223.
Cassidy, F.G. 1974. Review of Arne Zettersten’s “The English of Tristan da Cunha”. Language 50(1): 175‒177.
Chambers, J.K. 2004. Dynamic typology and vernacular universals. In Dialectology Meets Typology, B. Kortmann (ed.), 127–145. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
. 2008. Sociolinguistic Theory, 3rd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cheshire, J., Kerswill, P., Fox, S. & Torgersen, E. 2011. Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2): 151–196.
Crawford, A. 1945. I Went to Tristan. London: Allen and Unwin.
Dillard, J.L. 1970. Principles in the history of American English: Paradox, virginity, cafeteria. Florida FL Reporter 7: 32–33.
Earle, A. 1966. Narrative of a Residence on the Island of Tristan D’Acunha in the South Atlantic Ocean (1st edn 1832). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Eckert, P. 2000. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. The Linguistic Construction of Identity at Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.
Evans, D. 1994. Schooling in the South Atlantic Islands 1661–1992. Oswestry: Anthony Nelson.
Gordon, E., Campbell, L., Hay, J., Maclagan, M., Sudbury, A. & Trudgill, P. 2004. New Zealand English: Its Origins and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gosse, P. 1938. St. Helena 1502‒1938. London: Cassell.
Hickey, R. 2003. How do dialects get the features they have? On the process of new dialect formation. In Motives for Language Change, R. Hickey (ed.), 213–239. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hickey, R. (ed.). 2010. Handbook of Language Contact. Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kerswill, P. 2002. Koineization and accommodation. In A Handbook of Language Variation and Change, J.K. Chambers, P. Trudgill & N. Schilling-Estes (eds), 669–702. Oxford: Blackwell.
. 2003. Dialect levelling and geographical diffusion in British English. In Social Dialectology: In Honour of Peter Trudgill [Impact: Studies in Language and Society 16], D. Britain & J. Cheshire (eds), 223–243. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. 2010. Contact and new varieties. In R. Hickey (ed.), 230–251.
Kerswill, P. & Williams, A. 2000. Creating a new town koiné: Children and language change in Milton Keynes. Language in Society 29(1): 65–115.
. 2002. Dialect recognition and speech community focusing in new and old towns in England: The effects of dialect levelling, demography and social networks. In A Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Vol. 2, D. Long & D. Preston (eds), 178–207. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kortmann, B. & Lunkenheimer, K. (eds). 2013. The Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English [eWAVE]. [URL] (09 September 2013).
Melliss, J.C. 1875. St. Helena: A Physical, Historical, and Topographical Description of the Island, Including its Geology, Fauna, Flora, and Meteorology. London: Reeve and Co.
Mufwene, S.S. 1996. The founder principle in creole genesis. Diachronica 13(1): 83–134.
. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Munch, P.A. 1945. Sociology of Tristan da Cunha. Oslo: Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi.
Schneider, E.W. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schreier, D. 2002. Past be in Tristan da Cunha: The rise and fall of categoricality in language change. American Speech 77(1): 70–99.
. 2003. Isolation and Language Change: Sociohistorical and Contemporary Evidence from Tristan da Cunha English. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
. 2005. Consonant Change in English Worldwide: Synchrony Meets Diachrony [Palgrave Studies in Language History and Language Change 3]. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
. 2008. St Helenian English: Origins, Evolution and Variation [Varieties of English Around the World G37]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. 2010. St Helenian English. In D. Schreier et al. (eds), 224–244.
Schreier, D. & Trudgill, P. 2006. The segmental phonology of 19th century Tristan da Cunha English: Convergence and local innovation. English Language and Linguistics 10(1): 119–41.
Schreier, D. & Lavarello-Schreier, K. 2011. Tristan da Cunha and the Tristanians. London: Battlebridge.
Schreier, D., Trudgill, P., Schneider, E.W. & Williams, J.P. (eds). 2010. The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Siegel, J. 1985. Koines and koineisation. Language in Society 14(3): 357–378.
. 1987. Language Contact in a Plantation Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sudbury, A. 2000. Dialect Contact and Koinéisation in the Falkland Islands: Development of a Southern Hemisphere Variety. PhD dissertation, University of Essex.
Thomason, S.G. & Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Thomason, S.G. 2010. Contact explanations in linguistics. In R. Hickey (ed.), 31–47.
Trudgill, P. 1986. Dialects in Contact. Oxford: Blackwell.
. 2004. New Dialect Formation: The Inevitability of Colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
. 2008. Colonial dialect contact in the history of European languages: On the irrelevance of identity to new-dialect formation. Language in Society 37(1): 241–254.
Trudgill, P., Gordon, E., Lewis, G. & Maclagan, M. 2000. Determinism in new-dialect formation and the genesis of New Zealand English. Journal of Linguistics 36(2): 299–318.
Zettersten, A. 1969. The English of Tristan da Cunha [Lund Studies in English 37]. Lund: Gleerup.