Varieties of English Around the World (vols. G1–55, T1–9,1979–2015)

Second-language varieties of English in the South Pacific have received scant attention, until now. This monograph offers the first book-length analysis of the sociolinguistics and morphosyntax of three representatives of South Pacific L2 English in comparison – two of which have never been described linguistically. The book describes the spread of English, its current status and use in the three island states and compares the most frequent and salient morphosyntactic features to corresponding structures in Asian and African Englishes and the Oceanic substrate languages. As part of a larger theoretical discussion on the multiple factors that determine the evolution and dynamics of L2 varieties in general, Mufwene’s feature pool model is extended to a new model that integrates cognitive aspects of language acquisition and use, typological aspects of the languages/varieties involved and socio-cultural motivations of language use. The book also examines the role of New Zealand English as a potential epicentre in the South Pacific and considers ethical and methodological issues of linguistic field research.

Winner of the ESSE Book Award 2016 in the category language and linguistics

Winner of the Habilitationspreis of the Deutsche Anglistenverband 2016

This volume provides the first-ever sociolinguistic analysis of English on the island of St Helena, the oldest variety of English in the Southern Hemisphere. It is based on a concise synchronic profile of the variety (describing its segmental phonology and morphosyntax) and an evaluation of diachronic material in the form of letters, court cases, ghost stories, etc. The analysis is embedded into a theoretical framework of contact linguistics (contact dialectology and pidgin/creole linguistics) and builds upon the social and sociodemographic development of the community. The aims of this book are to trace the origins and evolution of the variety, to pinpoint the forms of English it affiliates with today and the inputs it derived from historically and to investigate whether local contact scenarios have led to the formation of regionally distinctive varieties across the island. Insights from St Helenian English thus challenge us to rethink principles of classification that are applied to determine the status of post-colonial varieties of English.

This monograph comprises eight papers, most of which originated as presentations given at international conferences or guest lectures. These papers deal with the problematic nature of English as a global language, and discuss what makes texts authentic and reliable for linguistic analysis, Scots in Ulster and in Scotland, forms and functions of English in Southeast Asia, the spread of rhyming slang, and varieties of ELT. The volume concludes with an annotated bibliography of the most important publications devoted to varieties of English around the world.

Standards and Variation in Urban Speech is an examination and exploration of the aims and methods of sociolinguistic investigation, based on studies of Scottish urban speech. It criticially examines the implications of the notions ‘vernacular’, ‘standard language’, ‘Received Pronunciation’, ‘social class’, and ‘linguistic insecurity’. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods using examples from comedians’ jokes, dialect poetry, formal and informal interviews, and personal narratives, the work illustrates the actual norms that speakers exemplify in various ways.

The volume consists of a substantial introduction, providing a geographical and historical outline of the area, an account of the origin of the area, an account of the origin of present-day southwestern speech varieties and a synopsis of their main features. This is followed by texts of three main types: brief selections from 17^th to 19^th century dialect writers, aimed at depicting characteristics of southwestern speech; longer 20^th century texts – verse, dialogue in novels; transcripts from tapes from 1950 onwards of speakers of different ages and social backgrounds. A part of each transcript is also provided in phonetic notation.

This study of the South African variety of English is an exercise in the sociology of language conducted mainly within the conceptual framework and methodology created by William Labov. It accepts that social process and social structure are reflected in patterns of covariation involving linguistic and social variables, and in attitudes to different varieties of speech within the community. This premise is pursued here in its historical implications: linguistuic evidence in present-day speech patterns of earlier states of the society and of the social, political and cultural changes that have brought about the present state. The second main focus in this volume is directed at the concept of ‘standard variety’, that is the social attributes and functions of a formal speech pattern for which the status of standard might be claimed.