Six months of isolation were enough for the researchers to develop their own accent.

Reading time: 2 minutes – spotted on BBC News

Exploring in Antarctica is not for everyone. During the winter, the planet’s least populated continent is cut off for six months. Faced with cold, almost perpetual night, little free time and few calls to loved ones, the researchers spend a lot of time talking to each other.

This is where “Antarctic English” was born, which is considered the youngest English-speaking dialect in the world. Its occurrence remains poorly understood; but in the winter of 2018, a study was devoted to this issue. Over the course of six months, she followed the evolution of the English language of twenty-six people present at Rother Research Station, the largest British base on the continent. According to the BBC, it highlights two main factors influencing the situation.

Forced isolation greatly contributes to the birth of a new dialect. Without external influence, single pronunciations become normalized, since speakers have no other reference point. This phenomenon is also observed in large cities: in the 1980s, in some areas of London where the immigrant population was concentrated, Multicultural London English (MLE) was born – a mixture of local accents, Jamaican Creole and some of the 300 languages. have been talked about in the capital for many years.

Unstable accent

Another influencing factor is the diversity of scientists’ backgrounds. The team studied included citizens of the USA, Iceland, Germany, Scotland and Wales. Everyone spoke English, but with different accents (regional differences or because it was a foreign language).

For those whose first language was not English, this brought the pronunciation closer to that of a native English speaker. In general, all accents gradually converged towards similar phonetic pronunciation. On the other hand, six months is not enough to detect this fusion by ear: the differences appear only in the transcription of their acoustic waves.

Moreover, the sustainability of Antarctic English can only be ensured through generational renewal. “Children are very good imitators, so their process of memorizing someone else’s speech is enhanced,” explains Jonathan Harrington, co-author of the study. It is through this process that linguists believe that American English diverged from British English, and immigrants of different nationalities spent weeks locked up on a ship bound for the New World.