The archive can be used in a number of ways, as outlined on our homepage. It's intended to be a historical resource for local people and others interested in Scilly. In addition to developing the archive for this general purpose, the Scilly Voices project team will be using the archive to work towards a specific project over the coming months.

This project will be coordinated by Emma Moore in collaboration with The Isles of Scilly Museum, The Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit and The Isles of Scilly Council. Emma is a linguist who works in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield. She has been visiting Scilly all her life. Her academic work has focused on the relationship between language and community. She is particularly interested in exploring how changes in local dialects reflect changes in the communities who use those dialects.

Scilly is often described as "distinctive" or "unique". When a location has a discrete identity, we frequently find a distinct language variety being used as a symbol of that identity. However, extensive population change can often disrupt the networks which maintain a particular language variety. Because Scilly's population is very mixed (including people who have lived there all their lives, incomers and seasonal workers), it's possible that the Islands have undergone significant change over time. The extent to which social and cultural factors might have changed language use on Scilly has never been systematically studied.