The Oceana English dialects or simply Oceana English is a group of Lovian English dialects spoken in parts of Oceana, mainly the central area and increasingly also the western area, and by people originally from those areas. East Hills is by far the largest settlement were the dialect is spoken, but nowadays it can also be heard in Hurbanova. The dialect of Heighnow could be considered a hybdrid variant of Beaver River English and Oceana English.
Dialects[]
Boris Hartman, the BBU linguist who identified the major dialect regions in Lovia, discerned several local dialects in Central Oceana:
- East Hills dialect
- Dialect of the Polish settlements (Boynitz, Dubnitz, Orwnitz)
- Dutch-influenced dialects (Bardeyow, Skelington)
- Wine Region dialect (Bytack, Cold Hill, Righow, Sternaw, Topolcane, Vrabelvrutke)
- Dien Village dialect
- Heighnow dialect
These are together referred to as the Oceana English dialects, because they share most of their characteristics.
Modern Hurbanovan[]
Oceana local historian and linguist Oos Wes Ilava also adds "Modern Hurbanovan" to the list. According to him this is the language used by Hurbanovans when speaking to people not from Hurbanova and it is growing in favor of Hurbanovan English. It is practically identical to the East Hills dialect and shares some common features with it, like the pronunciations of chose, town, ground and after, which are in both places pronounced as [tʃoːs], [t̪ʌʏ̯n̪], [gʁʌʏ̯n̪ː] and [ˈaːf.t̪ə], showing clear Scottish and Dutch influences.
Common features[]
Most common features of the dialect are in the pronunciation, see also Phonology. Influence from Slovak can be noticed; many diphthongs are realized as monophthongs in the dialects, for example /ɛː/ and /oː/ instead of /eɪ̯/ and /oʊ̯/. Most dialects have dental consonants, with the exception of the northern variaties, including East Hills, and are (more or less) non-rhotic. Another common feature is the verb "to i" for "to have", pronounced as /t̪y ʔɛɪ̯/, a feature shared with Beaver River English and the dialects surrounding Train Village.
Most of the Oceana English dialect vocabulary is similar to standard Lovian English vocabulary. However, a couple of words are only used by speakers of the Beaver River and Oceana dialects, including words like "fondestmate" (best friend), "pils" (beer), and "boozecan" (pub). The genitive construction after numerals, which is very common in Beaver River English, is rare to non-existant in Oceana English. Some scholars, however, note that it is rare in the eastern variaties, and increasingly rarer going west.
Phonology[]
Vowels[]
Oceana English vowels have clearly been influenced by Slovak and Oceana. The following table list words with vowels, followed by their Oceana English and General American pronunciation. The table shows the Hurbanova pronunciation, followed by the East Hills pronunciation.
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Vowels[]
The pronunciation for <r> varies, in the Oceana areas, it tends to be /ɹ/, /ʁ/ or /r/.