Falkland Islands English

The Falkland Islands, a cluster of 780 islands, that are 300 miles from the eastern coast of Argentina, had no indigenous population when the British arrived to explore the islands in 1690. Continuous anglophone settlement of the islands dates only to 1833, when British forces removed 26 Argentinian soldiers from the islands and claimed them for Britain. Argentina also has a claim to the islands, and in 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands. The United Kingdom moved to defend the British control of the islands, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling the islanders "of British tradition and stock". In under three months, nearly a thousand people were killed, and over 2,000 were injured in the war. For much of the 19th century, the Falklands had a transient population with much turnover as individuals came and went from the islands and a frontier mentality. Immigration to the islands from the United Kingdom, Chile and the British territory of Saint Helena is frequent, and the population was 55% local-born in 2006. There was also a transient presence of South American gauchos from Uruguay and Chile in the 19th century, however, very few of these became permanent residents of the island and their influence was limited to the lexicon of Falklands English, having no noticeable effect on its grammar and phonology. The geographical origins of the British settlers to the islands, and therefore the dialects of English they spoke, are hard to trace, due to a lack of detailed historical records. This problem is further complicated by the transient nature of many settlers' stays in the islands; settlers often found the conditions on the islands harsh and returned home, whereas others migrated onwards to Patagonia. Still more residents were employed as temporary workers on two- to five-year contracts, many of whom chose to return to the UK upon the contract's completion. However, the partial records that do exist, tend to suggest that the two areas providing most settlers were the West Country and the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The principal varieties of English involved in the formation of Falkland Islands English are likely to be West Country English and other dialects of Southern English. As well as these two varieties, it is probable that West Highland English was spoken by settlers, although, despite the fact Gaelic was only spoken on the islands for a generation, the highland settlers may have been Gaelic monolinguals upon arrival. In addition to these non-standard varieties, until land reforms in the 1970s, the wealthier strata of Falklands society, landowners and later farm managers, were typically speakers of RP or near-RP, as were the government officials present on the islands. Due to the small population, these individuals were less socially separated from the majority of the population than in other English-speaking regions, and so influenced the emerging variety. This dialect contact resulted in a process of koineisation, by which speakers of various dialects accommodated to each other by mixing and levelling their speech to produce a new variety of English. Until 1982, there is evidence that separate accents existed on West and East Falkland, which were themselves different from the accent of Stanley. However, by 2000, Sudbury reports there was no noticeable difference in accent between regions of the islands. ==Relationship to other varieties of English==

Falkland Islands English can be differentiated from other varieties of English. This difference in the pronunciation of the MOUTH vowel in part reflects the fact that the majority of settlers in Australia and New Zealand came from the southeast rather than the southwest of England. One salient feature that FIE shares with Australian English is the prevalence of High rising terminal in statements as well as questions, which is much less common in British English. In addition to this, h-dropping is rare, the vowel in "nurse" is fronted and rounded, words rhyming with "own" are pronounced with two syllables and the glide in "mouth" and "price" is weakened to nearly a monophthong. These features, alongside the comparative lack of non-standard grammar, are shared between FIE and the Australasian varieties. However, other features differ from the southern hemisphere varieties. These include a lack of raising of front vowels a non-open opening vowel in "face" and the absence of a diphthong in words that rhyme with "fleece" and "goose". Based on these factors, Andrea Sudbury concludes that FIE is typologically a southern hemisphere variety of English, albeit a somewhat peripheral one. == Phonetics and phonology ==

Vowels Front vowels The front monophthongs in Falklands English are very similar to standard Southern British English. The TRAP vowel is realised as [æ], the DRESS vowel is [ɛ] and KIT is commonly [ɪ]. This is consistent with other varieties of English in the southern hemisphere. As in Australia, Falklanders will often insert an extra schwa in words ending -OWN and -EWN, adding another syllable to the word. So, in the case of BLOWN, Standard English /bləʊn/ becomes FIE [bləʊən]. In the word WITH, the final -th sound might be devoiced so it is pronounced [θ] (as in "thing") rather than [ð] (as in "this"). This is paralleled in Scottish English and the feature is likely attributable to the presence of Scottish immigrants in the Falklands. Glottalisation of /t/ is increasingly common in non-word initial contexts. Intonation Falkland Islands English makes regular use of high rising terminals, where the rising intonation usually found in questions is used in declarative assertions. This feature is more common among younger speakers and women. ==Grammar==

Alongside other Southern Hemisphere varieties of English, Falkland Island English is comparatively close to standard English in its grammar. However, some non-standard forms are found occasionally among speakers. Pronouns Falklanders will sometimes use the second person plural pronoun youse, instead of "you" when referring to more than one interlocutor. This is also found in New Zealand and Australia, alongside other regions influenced by Hiberno-English. The pronouns she/her are sometimes used with inanimate objects rather than standard it/it. In coordinate subjects, the words me or myself will often replace standard I. So standard granny and I becomes FIE me and granny or myself and granny. The reflexive pronouns can be regularised both in possessive form and number. So himself > hisself and ourselves > ourself. As in many varieties of English, the first person possessive my can be replaced with the object pronoun me (e.g. I broke me leg). Non-standard uses of us are also recorded. It can be used as a singular object pronoun where standard English would use me (e.g. I was the only one there, so he hit us!). In addition to this, us can be used as an identifier with a noun phrase (e.g. Us chays remember very well what happened in 1982.) Noun Phrase Plurals Group plurals are sometimes used, where the plural marker -s is added not only to the head of the phrase but to the last word. For example, standard a few cans of beer might become FIE a few cans of beers. Plural markers are not used after quantifiers with units of measurement (e.g. ''That cost me seventy pound and it's only 3 gallon''). Determiners Falkland Islanders frequently drop the definite article in abbreviations, where it would always be present in British English. This is particularly evident with the phrase "the UK", which in Falkland Island English is almost always produced as simply "UK" (e.g. I had to study in [Ø] UK.) This feature is also found in ex-pat varieties of English spoken in Hong Kong and on the Costa del Sol. It is also common to replace the demonstrative "those" with "them" ( e.g. Them Argies got thrown off Goose Green double quick). Occasionally, speakers use a rather than an when the following noun or adjective begins with a vowel. This means standard English an eye becomes a eye whereas an old car may be produced as a old car. Adjectives Several non-standard features are found in comparative and superlative structures. Double comparative and superlative forms are sometimes found; for example it was more colder and he was the most strangest man I ever met. In addition to this, Falkland Islanders sometimes overuse both synthetic marking of comparatives (it was expensiver than I thought) and analytic marking of comparatives (her parents are more old). Verbs Habitual aspect In Falkland Island English, speakers may use -s on the verb to indicate a habitual aspect, for example "they goes wherever they wants". There is/there are As in many dialects of English, there is can be followed by the plural. A structure with there is/was + [noun] + [past participle] is used to illustrate resultative contexts. Examples of this might be "there was a fella shot here during the war" or ''"there's houses knocked down every other year"''. Past simple and perfect tenses As in Australian English, FIE sometimes generalises was to all persons and numbers. This means phrases such as "you was angry" and "there was three johnny rooks" are possible. Although the opposite phenomenon, generalisation of were to all persons and numbers (e.g. I were hungry), has been noted, it is exceptionally rare. Falkland Islanders often produce non-standard past simple and past participle forms. This can consist of regularisation of irregular verbs, generalisation of the past participle form to past simple, generalisation of the past simple to the past participle, and use of an unmarked verb as a past form with some verbs. Obligation Falkland Islanders frequently use non-standard got to instead of standard have got to, have to or must to express obligation. This feature is common in Southwestern England and is likely a reflection of the West Country origins of many early settlers. Negation Speakers may employ double negatives and ''ain't can be used as the negative form of have and be''. The was/weren't split is also found, where was can be used in all persons of the verb, but weren't is retained for situations where contrast is required. Speakers often use never to mark negation in the past simple tense and may generalise ''don't'' to all persons of the verb in the present simple. Conjunctions • Speakers may use what as a relative pronoun in situations where standard English would use that, who or which. e.g. ''There's a door what opens onto the street.'' • Defining relative pronouns may be deleted. e.g. There was a fella came here to study the penguins. • It is possible to use but at the end of a phrase in the way though may be used in standard English. e.g. I was tired, but. • Like can be used as a focussing device. e.g. ''It was chilly in London like, but not how it gets here when it's cold.'' ==Vocabulary==

The Falkland Islands had no native population prior to European settlement, and so did not develop the strata of loanwords relating to flora and fauna borrowed from indigenous languages which are found in Australian and New Zealand English. However, the Falklands English vernacular has some borrowed Spanish words due to contact with mainland South America and the influence of Spanish-speaking gauchos who worked on the islands. Other loanwords include interjections such as 'che', also encountered in Rioplatense Spanish, and 'poocha', equivalent to 'wow' or 'damn', (from pucha, a euphemism for puta or 'whore'). Spanish borrowings are dominant in the local horse-related terminology. For instance, the Islanders use 'alizan', 'colorao', 'negro', 'blanco', 'gotiao', 'picasso', 'sarco', 'rabincana' etc. for certain horse colours and looks, or 'bosal', 'cabresta', 'bastos', 'cinch', 'conjinilla', 'meletas', 'tientas', 'manares' etc. for various items of horse gear. Che "Che" (which may be spelled chay, chey or ché) is used more frequently by older people, and serves as an identity marker to show belonging to the Falkland Islands. It can roughly be translated as "mate" or "love" in British English, but can also be an interjection equivalent to hey! or I say!. Its use forms part of a gaucho sprachbund that covers southern Brazil, Uruguay, parts of Paraguay, Argentina, Chilean Patagonia and the Falklands. However, its use in Falklands English differs from that of Spanish and Portuguese in that it can be used as a noun or sometimes a name for an animal. Island English terms Two notable Falkland Island terms are 'kelper' meaning a Falkland Islander, from the kelp surrounding the islands (sometimes used pejoratively in Argentina), and 'smoko', for a smoking break (as in Australia and New Zealand). Through the influence of the British forces personnel, who have been stationed continuously in the islands since the Argentine invasion, military expressions are commonly used in Falkland Islands English. this probably derives from "johnny penguin" an alternate name from the gentoo penguin. == See also ==