The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction

Description

This is the first ever volume to compile sociolinguistic and historical information on lesser-known, and relatively ignored, native varieties of English around the world. Exploring areas as diverse as the Pacific, South America, the South Atlantic and West Africa, it shows how these varieties are as much part of the big picture as major varieties and that their analysis is essential for addressing some truly important issues in linguistic theory, such as dialect obsolescence and death, language birth, dialect typology and genetic classification, patterns of diffusion and transplantation and contact-induced language change. It also shows how close interwoven fields such as social history, contact linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics are in accounting for their formation and maintenance, providing a thorough description of the lesser-known varieties of English and their relevance for language spread and change.

Daniel Schreier is Professor of English at the University of Zurich. He has taught and lectured in New Zealand, Germany and in the USA. His previous publications include Isolation and Language Change (2003), Consonant Change in English Worldwide (2005) and St Helenian English (2008). Peter Trudgill is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Agder. He has carried out research on dialects of English, Norwegian, Greek, Albanian and Spanish and has written and edited more than thirty books on sociolinguistics and dialectology including Sociolinguistic Variation and Change (2002), A Glossary of Sociolinguistics (2003) and New Dialect Formation (2004). Edgar W. Schneider is Professor and Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Regensburg. He is the editor of the scholarly journal English World-Wide and its associated book series, Varieties of English around the World. His previous publications include Introduction to Quantitative Analysis of Linguistic Survey Data (1996) and Postcolonial English (Cambridge, 2007). Jeffrey P. Williams is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Texas Tech University. He previously taught at the University of Sydney and has conducted fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, the American Southwest and most recently with Montagnard refugees in North Carolina, USA. He was the co-editor of Contact Englishes of the Eastern Caribbean (2003).

'... represents a treasure trove of fascinating materials about the varieties of English, many of which have not been described in detail before ... scholars of English in many different fields will find the material exceptionally valuable.' David Deterding, English World-Wide