World Englishes: The Local Lives of a Global Language

World Englishes explores the external history, social processes, and consequences of language variation and change in English across different regions and populations. It examines the perspectives of English settlers, indigenous and enslaved people, colonial subjects, global citizens, and contemporary migrants, and critically examines the politics and ethics of English as a dominant global language.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 31 December 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

The English language has spread across the globe, but it has acquired local characteristics along the way. World Englishes traces the recent history of English, the social forces that contribute to shape the language contact, use, acquisition, and attitudes, and the ensuing variation in the language. It continues to diversify across space, time, and contexts of use, but ongoing interactions among people constrain diversification. Different chapters of World Englishes examine the competing perspectives of English settlers who fashion a new English during interactions in new colonies; of enslaved or economically marginalized people who became native speakers themselves; of colonial subjects who were compelled into using English but then claimed ownership of it; of global citizens who learn and use English today; and of contemporary migrants and digital netizens who blend English into densely multilingual encounters. The book critically examines the politics and ethics of English as dominant global language today, while glimpsing into the future.

Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474486293