Heterogeneity vs. homogeneity

Abstract

The Letters from settlers and labouring emigrants stem from a digitized edition of a contemporary letter edition made by the New Zealand Company with the obvious aim of advertising life in the newly established colony and thus attracting further migrants to their cause. The editing process is more than likely to have had a homogenizing effect on the language of the letters. The aim of the paper is to describe the degree of variability that is still found in these letters and to assess their suitability as a source of information for the history of written New Zealand English. To assess the editorial influence as a homogenizing factor in the New Zealand letters, a two-pronged approach is taken: (a) a micro-level comparison of variability in existing autographs from New Zealand from a later period with comparable letters from the Wakefield settlements, and (b) a macro-level comparison of variability in contemporary letters from America of emigrants from Lancashire, the so-called Cherry Valley Chronicles.