Oceanian English

Oceanian English (OcE) is the form of the English language used in the United Kingdom and the Oceanic Empire—and to a lesser extent those countries with a large presence of Oceanian expatriates.

The language derives from the break initiated with the colonisation of the Azazian archipelago especially in the late 18th century by middle and upper class settlers from England. With much of the early settler population drawing from southern England, and the more affluent classes, Oceanian English retains a more formal and stiff pronunciation than many other English dialects.

Origins

Owing to the contemporaneous settlement of Australia and New Zealand, the dialect that has become known and classified as Oceanian English bears many similarities to its regional linguistic kin. However, Oceanian English does differ from the two languages enough to warrant its own dialect.

In fact, Oceanian English can be argued to be far closer to New Zealand English than Australian English. The theory behind this similarity lay with the demographics of the initial settlers. While Australia was founded as a penal colony, and thus drew its founding settlers from urban populations, e.g. Cockneys, the settlements in Azazia—and to a lesser extent New Zealand—drew more of the educated and comparatively better-spoken middle and upper class cohorts, e.g. the presence of a landed aristocracy in Oceania versus a lack in Australia and New Zealand.

Important Characteristics

Broad A

One important and readily identifiable characteristic of the Oceanian dialect is the predominance of the broad A. Within the United Kingdom, the pronunciation of words such as bath, chance, glass, calf, and rather are pronounced as the broad A in father.

Non-rhotic pronunciation

Another difference and telling characteristic of Oceanian English is the ‘dropping of the r’ in certain cases. In more linguistic terms, the pronunciation of the r phoneme is absent from the syllable coda.

Spelling Differences

Similar to New Zealand, Oceanian English prefers British spellings, often eschewing American spellings and Americanisms. However, due to the presence of American troops in the Azazian Archipelago at the end of World War II, some American spellings and Americanisms have surreptitiously crept into the Oceanian dialect.

ou

As in British English, Oceanian English prefers the use of ou to o. Colour will not likely be found as color similarly labour and not labor, as well as ardour not ardor.

-ce/-se

Most Oceanians will prefer –ce endings to those of –se, e.g. defence not defense, offence not offense.

-re/-er

In general, Oceanian English will use the –re ending of a word when following a consonant. Centre not center, sabre not saber, spectre not specter, theatre, not theater.

ae (and oe)

Where words use the Latin æ and œ, Oceanian retains both the original and simplified spellings. Thus, economy may be spelt either economy or œconomy and archaeology may similarly be spelled as archaeology or archæology. However, since the introduction of the keyboard and digital revolution, the absence of specific ligature keys has prompted a decline in their proper use to the effect that some official state documents no longer use the ligatures.

-ise

Oceanian English most often witnesses the use of the –ise ending for words; however, the preference for the ending by Oceanian-printed dictionaries and language guides is –ise, not the –ize ending occasionally found in British language guides.

zed

The letter z is pronounced in accordance to the British zed.

Contractions

In general, the more stiff and formal characteristics of the dialect have left little room for the use of contractions in both written and spoken Oceanian English. While foreigners visiting the United Kingdom are well understood with their native use of contractions, it is not uncommon for Oceanians to offer subtle, but polite, notice of their use.

Important Deviations

It is worth noting that, despite the prevalence of Oceanian English within the United Kingdom, it is now but an umbrella for numerous sub-dialects within the United Kingdom and the Oceanic Empire. Of particular importance in the fostering of new sub-dialects is the importance of Philadelphia, founded not by British settlers but by Americans, who brought with them the nascent dialects of the eastern seaboard. And while much remained the same in the few decades of separation, some pronunciations and spellings are found to be different while in the city.