Tristan
Da Cunha
is a volcanic island situated in the South Atlantic Ocean roughly
halfway between Cape Town and Buenos Aires. It
is the most isolated inhabited island in the world with a current
population of approximately 284.
Daniel Schreier
from Basel, Switzerland joined the linguistics team at NC State
as a visiting research scholar and completed his PhD dissertation
at the Raleigh campus. He earned his PhD from the University of
Fribourg, Switzerland, researching the dialect of English spoken
on the island of Tristan da Cunha.
Dani
spent six months on the island recording the unique dialect spoken
by the Tristanians. The local dialect reflects the rich and unique
history of the community and is the result of language contacts
of all kinds (British and American dialects, Dutch, Danish, Italian
and a putatively English-based St Helenian creole). One of the
aims of his research is to explain how these dialects and languages
merged when Tristan Da Cunha English developed in the 19th century.
His dissertation (Non-standard Grammar and Geographic Isolation:
the Genesis, Structure and Development of Tristan Da Cunha English)
will be completed in summer 2001.
