Phraseology and Culture in English

Greetings as an act of identity in Tristan da Cunha English 
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The saliency of the local greeting formula how you is?, coupled with a 
quasi-instantaneous usage in introductory meetings with outsiders, would 
certainly make it a prime candidate for distinguishing islanders from out-
siders. Two considerations are crucial, however. On the one hand, due to 
the extreme isolation of the island, the Tristanians have not been faced with 
ever-increasing groups of visitors and tourists as other communities have. 
Few expatriates reside on Tristan da Cunha, and the island is not in danger 
of being swamped like Martha’s Vineyard or Ocracoke, NC. Tristanians 
thus have limited contact with outsiders in their own local environment, 
and this would not favour a socially significant reinterpretation of how you 
is?. On the other hand, the community has become increasingly open and 
exocentric (in the sense of Andersen 1988) since the 1960s, and the Trista-
nians are now spending more time in the “outside world” than ever before. 
While away from the island, they have become increasingly familiar with 
mainstream varieties of English (mostly South African, British and St Helen-
ian Englishes), and this has strengthened their awareness of their local vari-
ety’s distinctiveness.
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Indeed, Section 2.3 has shown that Tristanians have 
distinct opinions on the user-related contexts of this formula, and that (at 
least some) members of the Tristan community interpret (and also, both con-
sciously and unconsciously: use) this greeting formula as a marker of local 
identity. Some of the reactions documented above strongly indicate the opin-
ion that how you is? should be reserved for insiders of the community and 
natives of the island; by implication, for some Tristanians, this greeting 
formula symbolically represents traditional culture and norms, and how you 
is? for them functions as a linguistic expression of group membership and 
insider status. 
By the same token, there is evidence to suggest that the usage and inter-
pretation of how you is? on Tristan da Cunha is in the process of change, 
namely that this greeting formula carries distinct symbolic values for is-
landers of different age groups. It is striking that different generations of 
Tristanians react differently to outsiders using local norms. Most notably, I 
have noticed that older members of the community, i.e., the generation born 
before WWII have no hesitation to use the local greeting formula with visi-
tors and expatriates, and Tristanians belonging to this age group do not 
comment when addressed with this formula by outsiders. By contrast, it is 
the middle-aged Tristanians, born between WWII and the 1961–3 exile in 
England, particularly the men, who are most likely to react disapprovingly 
and to have strong opinions as to who may conform to local values and 
expressions and who may not (such as B.). Their reactions manifest atti-

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Daniel Schreier 
tudes that how you is? by outsiders is considered as an unwarranted intru-
sion into their linguistic and cultural spheres. Younger islanders, in turn, are 
less critical but also more likely to use outside norms with non-Tristanians, 
i.e. to return a more mainstream how are you? (see above). Thus, whereas 
older members of the community display little sensitivity to user-related 
choice of codes and expressions, younger ones have a strong sense of aware-
ness as to with whom local norms should be used. Usage of local expres-
sions with fellow Tristanians is also very persistent: even younger Tristani-
ans who have spent years in the “outside world” still use how you is? when 
talking to relatives and friends on the phone (interestingly, when asked why 
they would not say how are you?, the response is that this sounds “posh”). 
All this suggests that the significance attached to this formula is a relatively 
recent phenomenon on Tristan da Cunha and that it is the result of a widen-
ing linguistic awareness due to increasing outward mobility. 
As a tentative conclusion, I would suggest that reactions to outsider us-
age of how you is? manifest the development of a certain linguistic aware-
ness in the Tristan community, and that changes in social life have entailed 
linguistic and pragmatic consequences in the local dialect. A context-sen-
sitive interpretation of this formula can already be found on an individual
level, in that some members of the community react very strongly to what 
they regard as inappropriate usage; how you is? thus carries individual sig-
nificance. However, it is as yet unclear whether it is indeed in the process 
of becoming a socially significant marker on a community-wide level. The 
neutral reactions of some speakers, the lack of open metalinguistic com-
ment, speak against this. Notwithstanding, individual processes always pro-
vide the bottomline for eventually ensuing social processes, and individual 
significance always represents the forerunner of social significance (as wit-
nessed for instance on Martha’s Vineyard, where centralised onsets were 
mostly restricted to local fishermen before they were reinterpreted and 
adopted by larger groups in other parts of the island). In a sense, we may 
thus witness the beginning stages of a social reinterpretation of linguistic 
norms. Future research, with close attention to subsequent changes in the 
community, might detect the trajectory of these changing attitudes and clar-
ify whether the reaction to outsiders using how you is? is indeed in the 
process of changing from individual to social significance. Similar studies 
could of course also be conducted in other communities, and a close ex-
amination of the social embedding of greeting formulae can certainly con-
tribute to a deeper understanding of pragmatic reevaluation and change, 
both in individuals and across communities. 

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