South Atlantic English is a variety of theEnglish language which is spoken on islands in theSouthern Hemisphere. South Atlantic English is spoken onTristan da Cunha andSaint Helena, but its spread on other islands is unknown. An intelligibility withBritish English, 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.
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; theEast India Company 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.
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 speakerswould 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 pronouncedideear when the word following it begins with a vowel sound - these two phenomena are calledlinking and intrusive R 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.
Here are some other prevalent phonetic markers in Saint Helena English:
Th-stopping - where the Englishth-sound is pronounced ast ord, 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 likebear.
/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 adageSt Helena was created by two wolcanos.
/t/ at the end of a word is frequentlyglottalized or dropped entirely, therefore a 'project' is pronounced asprorjek.
Some sounds are added as though superfluous, for example 'fishing' is pronouncedfishenin'.
Syllabic 'r' is often dropped, for example 'funeral' (in which the second syllable is a syllabic 'r' in some rural British English dialects) is pronouncedfewnel.
Many word-final consonant clusters are simplified by deleting one of the consonants - 'build' becomesbil, and 'strength' becomesstreng'.
Where 'a couple' in English means two things, in Saint it can be two or more. A good/nicecouple means 'a lot more than two' or 'enough for your liking' - for example,Have you a good couple of chips means 'take as manypotato chips as you want'. Likewise,a good couple of days means 'not for some time'.
Many words in Saint are contractions of English phrases - for examplemussie for 'must be/have',most for 'almost',miggies for 'hurry up' (from 'make haste'), andbitta for 'a bit of'.
The wordstay does not have a temporary connotation in Saint, so askingWhere you chirren stay? means 'Where do your kids live?'.
The standard greeting for friends and relatives islurvy, from the Southern English 'Luvvie'.
The expressionphew ya is a standard exclamation, and the adjectivesome can be used to mean 'quite' or 'very'. For example,Phew ya it some hot! means 'Wow, it's quite hot!'.
Saint Helena Southern Atlantic English has several curious non-standard grammatical features:
Saint Helena English also lacks plural marking after numerals - for exampletwenty pound, four month, nine boat, many house.
The wordssee andlah are appended as interrogatives to confirm understanding, or to elicit a response from a listener. Questions do not have inversion ordo-support. For example,Him have nine boat means 'He has nine boats', butHim 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 bydone.
In addition, the indefinite article 'a' is often replaced byone - for example,Us done give y'all one beer means 'We have given you a beer'.
The language allows null subjects, for example the sentenceMet with two girl on you boat is grammatically valid, and the matter ofwho met the two girls on the listener's boat is inferred through context.
Possessive pronouns are often simplified, for exampleWhat 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, buty'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 phraseYou never come Town much them days, meaning 'You never came to Jamestown much back then'.
St Helena English allows multiple negation, for exampleYou no eat no food.
The double modal construction is also sometimes used, for exampleMight be ill, but Imaycan go by shop implies despite the speaker's illness, it'spossible the speaker has theability to enter the shop.
Some Saint vocabulary is more similar to American than British, and this is most likely related to the temporary movement of locals toAscension Island 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 thep sound.
'August' is pronouncedOw-gus
'July' is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable -JEW-lee
'Buoy' is pronounced like the Americanboo-ee, and 'Boutique' is pronouncedBow-teek
Chips andpants refer to the American, not British, understandings -potato chips andtrousers.
The vowel sequence /ei/ is shortened and non-diphthongized, but its length is preserved, so 'base' is pronounced /be:s/bes.
T-glottalization occurs medially, for example at the t-sounds in 'better, letter, butter'.
There is extensive insertion of the breathy [h] sound before various vowels, for example in the phraseHapples 'n horanges. This is most notable in the way that the locals refer to Tristan - as the 'island', which is pronounced more likehiland.
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 liketelevishon.
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 havelinking and intrusive r sounds.
Many features are comparatively similar to Saint Helenian English. Tristanian's grammar includes:
A lack of plural marking, such astwo man, four street, ten finger.
Distinct second person plural pronouns are used, such asy'all islander andyou's there.
Verbal inflectional morphology is highly simplified, such asShe 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 nameRidge-where-the-Goat-jump-off.
