ABSTRACT
The relative uniformity is accounted for by several factors, notably the tendency to explore the interior from urban coastal bases, whose speech remained a norm, high mobility from the early days of settlement, social insecurity leading to linguistic conformity (with strong influence from the literary language), and the mixed dialect origins of early settlers,
whichwouldtendtofavourthedroppingofnoticeablylocaland restrictedusages(Turner,10-15).Themobilityfactorneedstobe brokendownfurther.Intheearliestdaysitreferstoanomadicwayof life.Butitislinguisticallyrelevantthathardontheheelsofextended inlandsettlementfollowedthefirstofthemodernaidstospeedintravelthesteamshipandtherailway.Moreover,theextremesmallnessofthe populationmilitatedagainsttheformationofsubgroups-in1834the populationwasonlyabout36,000,and'newchums'feltastrong pressuretoconform.Inpartthispressurederivedfromeachnewarrival's senseofjoiningagroup-AustralianorNewZealand;ifthefirstEnglishspeakersinEnglandhadsuchasense,itrelatedtoamuchsmaller group.Englishhadahistoryofseveralcenturiesinthiscountrybefore thespeaker'sself-identificationwaswithanationalratherthanalocally restrictedcommunity(cf.§210).
