The American Elizabethan Accent: Sea Island Residents Talk

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study of “American Elizabethan” compares key “Hoi Toid” sounds in the “Delmarva” accents on Smith (Maryland) and Tangier (Virginia) Islands utilizing original accent samples collected in 2019. Since these inhabited Islands are only accessible by ferry, it was hypothesized that islanders would retain more accent elements from southwest England and Ireland than mainlanders, resulting in a similarity of contemporary and historical pronunciation and prosody. Though fewer of these accent elements were present than anticipated, several phonetic realizations distinguished the Hoi Toid accents from British and Original Pronunciation accents. Previous linguistic research, including collections of local vocabulary, further inform this comparative analysis that draws attention to contemporary accent loss on Sea Coast Islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Categorization of these accents into an “American Elizabethan” accent attempts to mitigate accent loss by archiving recorded material and analysis and, furthermore, raises awareness of the impact of climate change on speakers’ environments.