Dialects of English

This is a new volume in the Dialects of English series - a series of short, accessible but authoritative books on specific dialect varieties, each written by a specialist or specialists who have done first-hand work on the variety concerned.

This volume provides an overview of all aspects of north-eastern English and explores the phonetic, phonological and morphosyntactic features of the variety, including an analysis of lexical items. It focuses on the historical and linguistic aspects of the dialect and local culture, as well as investigating variation and change across generations. Designed with undergraduates and the general reader in mind, this book provides an excellent introduction to dialects of the region.

This volume provides an overview of all aspects of Hong Kong English in a style designed for undergraduates and general readers. As a former British colony, Hong Kong used English as the language of government, law and education in the early days of colonial rule. Since the Handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, it is no longer used as the primary language of government. However, the status of English has survived the decline of colonial rule, as English has become an international language which is indispensable for a service-oriented economy such as present-day Hong Kong. Its use is still widespread in legal contexts, and English is the medium of instruction in at least a quarter of secondary schools.

Outwith the realm of education, English is important as a means of international communication in the fields of banking and finance, business, and in the tourism and hospitality industry. English is therefore integrated into Hong Kong life in various ways and this has resulted in a thriving and developing variety of English. This book describes English in Hong Kong as a linguistic phenomenon from the point of view of language structure, but also takes into account historical, socio-cultural and socio-political developments.

This book is the first full-length volume to offer a comprehensive introduction to the English spoken in Britain's oldest overseas colony, and, since 1949, Canada's youngest province. Within North America, Newfoundland and Labrador English is a highly distinctive speech variety. It is known for its generally conservative nature, having retained close ties with its primary linguistic roots, the traditional speech of southwestern England and southern Ireland. It is also characterised by a high degree of regional and social variation. Over the past half century, the region has experienced substantial social, economic and cultural change. This is reflected linguistically, as younger generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians increasingly align themselves with 'mainland' North American norms.

The volume includes

• An accessible description of the phonological, grammatical, lexical and discourse features of this variety
• Treatment of regional speech variation within the province, and its historical sources
• Discussion of the social underpinnings of ongoing language change
• Language samples from both traditional and contemporary speakers
• A survey of published work on Newfoundland and Labrador English from earlier centuries to the present day.

This book focuses on the sociolinguistic consequences of historical contact between indigenous Irish peoples and newer English and Scottish settlers in what is now the territory of Northern Ireland (NI). The contact varieties that resulted represent the oldest L2 'Englishes' globally. Moreover, the degree of admixture from English, Irish and Scots in the contemporary dialects of NI reflects various external forces. Naturally, these varieties share certain structural features with sister Celtic Englishes and indeed with other vernacular Englishes globally. However, there are other linguistic traits that seem to be unique and therefore essentially local.

Irish English, Volume 1 - Northern Ireland aims to provide insights into the evolution of language in 21st century NI and to promote an understanding of linguistic diversity in this region in the context of World Englishes by including:

• *An overview of cultural, demographic and geographic aspects of NI's languages/dialects
• *An extensive, though accessible, description of their structures
• *A history of language in NI, pinpointing regional/social differences as well as current changes
• *An annotated bibliography of relevant literature and a general bibliography to aid further research
• *Speech and text samples from the 19th-21st centuries.

This book is a descriptive account of English as it is used in India. Indian English is a second language to most of its speakers. In its 400-year history it has acquired its own character, yet still looks to native varieties of English for norms. The complex nature of Indian English, which is not really a monolithic entity, is discussed in this book. The book also makes a distinction between what are considered to be standard and non-standard varieties, and provides an overview of the salient features.

Indian English includes:

• A discussion of the sociolinguistic and cultural factors
• The history of the establishment of English in India, bringing it up to modern times
• A description of the linguistic aspects: phonetics and phonology, lexical, discourse and morphosyntactic features
• Samples of written English from a range of contexts
• Samples of speech
• An annotated bibliography divided according to topic.

This book is a comprehensive but accessible description of English as it is spoken in New Zealand. New Zealand English is one of the youngest native speaker varieties of English, and is the only variety of English where there is recorded evidence of its entire history. It shares some features with other Southern Hemisphere varieties of English such as Australian English and South African English, but is also clearly distinct from these. For the past two decades extensive research has focused on the evolution and ongoing development of the variety. New Zealand English presents the results of this research in an accessible way.

Key Features

• A succinct but comprehensive account of the phonetic, phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical and discourse features which are characteristic of the dialect.
• A discussion of the historical development of New Zealand English.
• A description of the current social and regional variation within the variety.
• An indication of the areas where change is currently occurring.
• Sample texts and an annotated bibliography of relevant literature.

There are also several associated audio files, which provide examples of many of the phenomena discussed: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/dialects/

Over the past few decades, Singapore English has been emerging as an independent variety of English with its own distinct style of pronunciation, grammar and word usage. This book provides an overview of this variety in straightforward, non-technical language, including coverage of:

• its pronunciation, including comparisons with the pronunciation of English in other countries in South-East Asia
• its morphology and grammar
• the words that are used, including instances where the meaning is distinct from other varieties of English
• the discourse patterns that are found, including use of particles such as lah
• its history and current developments.

All the findings presented in the book are illustrated with extensive examples from one hour of recorded conversational data from the Lim Siew Hwee Corpus of Informal Singapore Speech, as well as some extracts from the NIE Corpus of Spoken Singapore Speech and recent blogs. In addition, usage patterns found in the data are summarised, to provide a solid foundation for the reported occurrence of various features of the language. A full transcript of the data is included in the final chapter of the book.

The Scots dialects of northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland are among the most traditional varieties of ‘English’, exhibiting features not current elsewhere for centuries. Until recently, they were spoken in communities whose traditional occupations have encouraged the equation of speech with local identity. They have all also been affected by contact with Gaelic, or Norse, or both. In recent years, however, the decline of traditional industries has been matched by the discovery of oil off their coasts, encouraging in-migration of speakers of many varieties of English and other languages. How well have these varieties maintained their traditional natures at the start of the 21st century?

Northern and Insular Scots provides:

*An approachable description of the phonological, structural and lexical natures of these varieties*A history of the varieties in relation to the areas in which they are spoken*Examples of the language of native speakers*An annotated bibliography which points the reader towards more specialised works.

Northern and Insular Scots provides:

• An approachable description of the phonological, structural and lexical natures of these varieties
• A history of the varieties in relation to the areas in which they are spoken
• Examples of the language of native speakers
• An annotated bibliography which points the reader towards more specialised works.