Englishes in Sydney Around 1850

Court reports from cases heard mainly at the Sydney Police Office in the mid-nineteenth century were taken down and published around 1850 in two Sydney newspapers, The Empire and Bell's Life in Sydney, by the newspaper reporter Charles Adam Corbyn, and republished in 1970 by Cyril Pearl. The aim of this paper is to see to what extent these texts can throw light on the various Englishes spoken in Sydney at the time, including London English, American English and Chinese Pidgin English, among others. Corbyn's reports give a good indication of the varieties in use but are less helpful in identifying features of a non-standard Australian English.