Bermudian English (BerE) is one of the least documented varieties of English that has undergone full nativisation. The only source we are aware of is Ayres (1933), who provides an overview of some selected phonological features. The present paper has two aims: first, to provide a preliminary morphosyntactic profile of African Bermudian English (ABerE) and to anchor this variety in the quickly emerging canon of lesser-known varieties of English around the world (Schreieret al.2010), and second, to gain some first typological insights whether or not it aligns with English in the Caribbean (and if so, with which varieties), as has been claimed by some sources (e.g. Trudgill 2002). With this aim, we report some first findings from a fieldwork study on the island and in a later step compare these with selected Caribbean varieties — Bahamian English (BahE), Bajan, Jamaican English, and Vincentian Creole, as reported in theElectronic World Atlas of Varieties of English(Kortmann and Lunkenheimer 2011). We argue that morphosyntactic similarities and differences between the varieties are explained by the Bermudian community’s sociohistorical and sociolinguistic contexts, including settlement patterns, population demographics, and peopling, and that the emergence and origins of a stable localised variety of (A)BerE need to be approached with reference to the historical connections between Bermuda and the communities that provided donor varieties. We further argue in favor of a two-way transfer pattern: Caribbean Englishes are likely to have influenced the evolution of English on Bermuda, while BerE itself was an influential input variety in other locations (particularly the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands).

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Bermudian English. A sociohistorical and linguistic profile focuses on a hitherto severely under-researched variety of English. The book traces the origins and development of Bermudian English, so as to situate the variety within the canon of other lesser-known varieties of English, and provides a first in-depth description of its variable morphosyntactic structure. Relying on sociolinguistic interview data and combining qualitative, typological and quantitative, variationist analyses of selected morphosyntactic features, it sheds light on structural affiliations of Bermudian English and argues for a two-way transfer pattern where Bermudian English plays an important role in the development of a number of other English(-based) varieties in the wider geographical region. Complementing existing studies which document such varieties, this book contributes to the body of research that describes the diversity of English(-based) varieties around the globe, filling a notable gap.

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