Isolation and Language Change

Extremely isolated communities offer "laboratory conditions" for examining the processes of language change and dialect formation. This book presents findings of ethnographic fieldwork on the most remote island in the world with a permanent population, Tristan da Cunha. It documents the historical formation of a unique local dialect and investigates the sociolinguistic mechanisms that underlie dialect contact and new dialect formation. It also uncovers the linguistic consequences of post insularity language change processes as a result of increasing contacts with other communities and speakers. Researchers and students of language variation will find this book a unique resource.