Move back one step  Move forward one step  Show themes of website
Larger font Smaller font Default font
   Introduction

The present website is intended as a source of information on varieties of English worldwide. It is aimed at both students and scholars who may wish to inform themselves about this vibrant area of current linguistic research. There have been a great number of publications on varieties in recent decades – monographs, handbooks, articles in linguistic journals – and the current website is intended to give a flavour of the existing varieties of English and the studies of them which have been made. With regards to the latter, please note that the references are not, indeed cannot be, anything like complete. Instead, references are given which can be used as starting points for further concern with specific varieties. It is hoped that this approach will be found helpful by visitors to and users of the website.

This website is closely linked to the New Cambridge History of the English Language (7 vols., Cambridge University Press, 2025/6) which, as a new history, aims at treating English inclusively, according varieties worldwide their rightful place among the many forms of English to be found today and in history. More information on the new history can be gleaned from the dedicated module (see node in tree on left).

  Varieties of English

   English is spoken today on all five continents as a result of colonial expansion in the last four centuries or so. The consequences of the colonial era can be seen in the presence of English as an official and often native language in many of the former colonies. In addition, more strongly diverging varieties, which arose in particular socio-political conditions, are also to be found: pidgins which in some cases later developed into creoles (native varieties of precursor pidgins). Another legacy of colonialism is where English fulfils the function of a lingua franca. Many countries, like Nigeria, use English as a lingua franca, i.e. a general means of communication, since there are many different and mutually unintelligible languages in that country. In such situations English fulfils the need for a supraregional means of communication.

Map: A New and Accurat Map of the World (John Speed, 1627)

English plays a central role as an international language. There are a number of reasons for this, such as the economic status of the United States and the need for a common language in international trade. Internal reasons for the international success of English can also be recognised: a little bit of English goes a long way as the grammar is largely analytic in type (few grammatical endings). It is thus suitable when foreigners cannot or do not wish to expend great effort on learning a foreign language.

In terms of speaker numbers (both as a first and a second language), English is only exceeded by Chinese (in its various forms). In terms of geographical distribution it stands at the top of the league as it is found throughout the world. The expansion of English started in Ireland in the late 12th century (indeed into Lowland Scotland in the late Old English period) and continued well into the 19th century, reaching its peak at the end of the reign of Queen Victoria and embodied in the saying ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire’.

The varieties of English in the modern world are divided into four geographical groups as follows.

British Isles North America
England United States (with African American English and Latino varieties)
Wales Canada
Ireland The Caribbean

Africa Asia, Pacific
West Africa South- and South-East Asia
East Africa Australia and New Zealand
Southern Africa The Pacific islands

For English in Britain and America there exist standard forms which are used as yardsticks for comparing other varieties in these respective areas.

In Britain the standard is called Received Pronunciation. The term stems from Daniel Jones at the beginning of the twentieth century and refers to the pronunciation of English which is accepted – that is, ‘received’ – in English society. BBC English, Oxford English, Queen’s/King’s English are alternative terms which are not favoured by linguists as they are imprecise or simply incorrect.

In America there is a standard which is referred to in a number of ways, General American and Network English being two common labels. There is a geographical area where this English is spoken and it is defined negatively (and loosely) as the rest of the United States outside New England (the north east) and the South. General American is spoken by the majority of Americans, including many in the North-East and South and thus contrasts strongly with Received Pronunciation which is a prestige sociolect spoken by only a few percent of all the British. The southern United States occupy a unique position as they contain large numbers of African Americans whose speech is distinct from other varieties of American English. The African Americans are the descendents of the slaves originally imported into the Caribbean area, chiefly by the English from the 16th century onwards. Their English has more in common with that of the various anglophone Caribbean islands.

Those varieties of English which are spoken outside of Britain and America are variously referred to as ‘overseas’ or ‘extraterritorial’ varieties. A recent practice is to use the term ‘Englishes’ (a plural created by linguists) which covers a multitude of forms. The label English Worldwide (also the name of an academic journal dedicated to this area) or World Englishes is used to refer to English in its global context. Overseas varieties are not just different because of their geographical distance from the original homeland but also because in many cases the overseas varieties appear little changed compared with those in the British Isles. This phenomenon is known as colonial lag. However, it is a term which should not be overworked but a temperate use of the term is appropriate.

Hickey, Raymond 2025. Transported English in the Colonial Period. In Raymond Hickey (ed.) The New Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 6: Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 35-68.

Mesthrie, Rajend 2025. Towards a History of World Englishes. In Raymond Hickey (ed.) The New Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 6: Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 92-116.

Schilling, Natalie 2025. The Dialectology of Anglo-American English In Natalie Schilling, Derek Denis and Raymond Hickey (ed.) The New Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 5: North America and the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 64-94.

Wolfram, Wolf 2025. Language Change and the History of American English In Natalie Schilling, Derek Denis and Raymond Hickey (ed.) The New Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 5: North America and the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 37-63.