Evolving Englishes

Varieties through Space and Time

Sven Leuckert, Sofia Rüdiger, Tobias Bernaisch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN: 9781040650585
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Under the umbrella of evolving Englishes, this edited volume marries studies into the history of the English language with research traditionally rooted in the World Englishes paradigm.

Insights into patterns of regional variation are offered with regard to linguistic features that have hitherto primarily been investigated in a small set of first-language varieties, but descriptions of varieties in the Kachruvian Outer Circle are also enhanced through noteworthy historical perspectives. Methodologically, each contribution works on strictly empirical grounds, regularly producing insights based on only recently compiled corpora of first- and/or second-language varieties of English. This approach brings to the fore novel functional and structural features of understudied varieties, such as the Englishes in Namibia and Sint Maarten, but also of varieties with more established research traditions in Asia and of functional varieties of English. In order to unveil said varietal features, novel analytical approaches, including the study of cultural scripts or refinements of tree-based modelling techniques, are embraced.

In the light of said conceptual and methodological contributions, this edited volume is an attractive read for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and academics in the fields of World Englishes, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, and sociolinguistics. It will also be of interest to researchers in related disciplines, including cultural studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1 Englishes in flux: Varieties through time and space
• 2 Producing linguistic authenticity: A soap opera as a source of historical creole data?
• 3 Short-term diachronic perspectives on the lexis-grammar interface of Indian and Sri Lankan English: The choice between light-verb constructions and simplex verbs
• 4 Books about birds: Introducing a corpus of ornithological British English literature (1840–1920)
• 5 It’s all for the birds: An analysis of variation and attitudes through time and space
• 6 Predicative as in World Englishes: Meanderings of a multifunctional form
• 7 A new variety in the making: Emerging norms in Namibian English
• 8 Morphosyntactic variation in St. Maarten English(es)
• 9 Ha it was a bit difficult only…: More on discourse particles in Indian English
• 10 The syntax of Pakistani English: Investigating the (online) use of invariant tags
• 11 One of the greatest Indian ornithologist: A corpus-based study of number variation in partitives in regional Indian newspaper Englishes
• 12 Variation in bird names in Scots
• 13 Authentic Englishes.nrw: Digital teaching and learning materials for varieties of English
• 14 Assessing use of transition markers in academic language of young Indian ESL learners: A corpus-based analysis
• 15 English and Marathi in language contact: Lexical borrowing and linguistic meta-awareness in L1 and L2 speakers of Marathi
• Index