English in a global context

World English(es)
English as a colonial language
References

World English(es)

World Englishes is a general term (normally in the plural) referring to English as spoken throughout all five continents. The reference is usually to that core of language which is common to all form of English and which is manifest in the many varieties of the language.

This use in the plural, i.e. as World Englishes, has gained currency in recent years and often refers to non-native forms of English, which are not bound to settler varieties or traditional dialects of English (see remarks on colonial English below). World Englishes is understood as preferable to New Englishes, which is now regarded as dated and carrying undesireable implications of being continually compared to older forms of English. In the European context, the term Euro English (in the singular) can sometimes be found with similar connotations.

World Englishes, 1981- (Oxford: Blackwell)

English Today, 1985- (Cambridge: University Press)

There are also corpora dedicated to the collection of data on standard English from different countries, notably those contained in the International Corpus of English project and in others such as the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English or the Australian Corpus of English.

English as a colonial language

In many former colonies of England there is a linguistic legacy which sees the English language as a remnant of colonial domination. This is particularly the case in countries in Africa, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. Those countries with large settler communities – the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – have a somewhat different attitude as English in these countries largely derives from that of the current population’s ancestors (through the developmental process of new dialect formation). In Asia the situation is more complex as there were not any settler communities but there was colonialism due to the administrative and military presence of the English. The domination of English in today’s world has been treated by some scholars under the heading of ‘Linguistic imperialism’.

References

Bolton, Kingsley and Braj B. Kachru 2006. World Englishes. 6 vols.. Critical Concepts in Linguistics London: Routledge.

Bolton, Kingsley (general ed.) 2025. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. 6 vols. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Canagarajah, Suresh 1999. Resisting Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crystal, David 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gramley, Stephan 2001. The vocabulary of world English. London: Arnold.

Hoffmann, Thomas and Lucia Siebers (eds) 2009. World Englishes - Problems, Properties and Prospects Selected papers from the 13th IAWE conference. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Jenkins, Jennifer 2003. World Englishes. A resource book for students. London: Routledge.

Kachru, Braj 1990. The alchemy of English. The spread, functions, and models of non-native Englishes. English in a global context Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Kachru, Yamuna and Cecil L. Nelson 2006. World Englishes in Asian Contexts. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Kachru, Braj B., Yamuna Kachru and Cecil L. Nelson (eds) 2006. The handbook of World Englishes. Oxford: Blackwell.

Kachru, Yamuna and Cecil L. Nelson 2006. World Englishes in Asian contexts. Hong Kong: University Press.

Kirkpatrick, Andy 2007. World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McArthur, Tom 2002. The Oxford guide to world English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McKay, Sandra Lee 2002. Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Melchers, Gunnel, Philip Shaw and Peter Sundkvist 2026. World Englishes. Fourth edition. London: Routledge.

Mesthrie, Rajend and Rakesh M. Bhatt 2008. World Englishes. An Introduction to New Language Varieties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Phillipson, Robert 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Saraceni, Mario. 2015. World Englishes. A Critical Analysis. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Schneider, Edgar 2007. Postcolonial English. Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.