World Englishes - (Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language - Advanced) by Bertus Van Rooy (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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. English continues to diversify across space, time and contexts of use, but ongoing interactions among people constrain diversification.
Different chapters examine the competing perspectives of English settlers who fashion a new English during interactions in new colonies; of enslaved or economically marginalised 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.

Review Quotes

Bertus Van Rooy offers a fresh and accessible take on Global English in the 21st century, illustrating its rich and fascinating linguistic diversity and asking all the right questions about language politics, linguistic rights and linguistic justice.

The work of a leading scholar in the field, this volume is the most original work on this topic to be published in recent years. Wide-ranging and insightful, Prof van Rooy's book covers such topics as the history of world Englishes, Inner Circle and Outer Circle varieties, language contact, migration, and English on the Internet. One particular strength of this volume is the insight into the sociolinguistics of English as a global language, with reference to such processes as language transplantation, language contact, language shift, and the linguistic analysis of varieties of English.

About the Author

Bertus van Rooy is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam