Postcolonial Language Varieties in the Americas


Book Description

In the Americas, both indigenous and postcolonial languages today bear witness of massive changes that have taken place since the colonial era. However, a unified approach to languages from different colonial areas is still missing. The present volume studies postcolonial varieties that emerged due to changing linguistic and sociolinguistic conditions in different settings across the Americas. The studies cover indigenous languages that are undergoing lexical and grammatical change due to the presence of colonial languages and the emergence of new dialects and creoles due to contact. The contributions showcase the diversity of approaches to tackle fundamental questions regarding the processes triggered by language contact as well as the wide range of outcomes contact has had in postcolonial settings. The volume adds to the documentation of the linguistic properties of postcolonial language varieties in a socio-historically informed framework. It explores the complex dynamics of extra-linguistic factors that brought about the processes of language change in them and contributes to a better understanding of the determinant factors that lead to the emergence and evolution of such codes.




Postcolonial English


Book Description

The global spread of English has resulted in the emergence of a diverse range of postcolonial varieties around the world. Postcolonial English provides a clear and original account of the evolution of these varieties, exploring the historical, social and ecological factors that have shaped all levels of their structure. It argues that while these Englishes have developed new and unique properties which differ greatly from one location to another, their spread and diversification can in fact be explained by a single underlying process, which builds upon the constant relationships and communication needs of the colonizers, the colonized, and other parties. Outlining the stages and characteristics of this process, it applies them in detail to English in sixteen different countries across all continents as well as, in a separate chapter, to a history of American English. Of key interest to sociolinguists, dialectologists, historical linguists and syntacticians alike, this book provides a fascinating new picture of the growth and evolution of English around the globe.




Variation and Change in Postcolonial Contexts


Book Description

This volume addresses recent issues concerning language change and standardization in postcolonial settings. The book brings together experts from North America, Africa, Asia and the insular areas of Australia and Trinidad and Tobago, and discusses aspects of language variation in the emergence of new varieties. The approaches range from linguistic diagnostics and related methodologies to the most accredited interpretative theories on the evolution of New Englishes. The book includes a section on emerging varieties of English in new media, and special focus has been given to those new varieties of Philippine and Nigerian English spoken in a non-canonical post-colonial context represented by the city of Turin, Italy. The result is a collection of studies that illuminate issues of language variability from different perspectives in order to contribute to the lengthy debate on language contact, diversification, speciation and standardization.




Modelling World Englishes


Book Description

This book brings together two types of varieties of English that have so far been treated separately: postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. It examines these varieties of English against the backdrop of current World Englishes theory, with a special focus on the extra- and Intra-Territorial Forces (EIF) Model. Bringing together a range of distinguished researchers in the field, each chapter tests the validity of this new model, analyses a different variety of English and assesses it in relation to current models of World Englishes. In doing so, the book ends the long-standing conceptual gap between postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes and integrates these in a unified framework of World Englishes. Case studies examine English(es) in England, Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Australia, North America, the Bahamans, Trinidad, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena, Bermuda, and the Falkland Islands, Ireland, Gibraltar and Ghana.




Postcolonial English


Book Description

The global spread of English has resulted in the emergence of a diverse range of postcolonial varieties around the world. Postcolonial English provides a clear and original account of the evolution of these varieties, exploring the historical, social and ecological factors that have shaped all levels of their structure. It argues that while these Englishes have developed new and unique properties which differ greatly from one location to another, their spread and diversification can in fact be explained by a single underlying process, which builds upon the constant relationships and communication needs of the colonizers, the colonized, and other parties. Outlining the stages and characteristics of this process, it applies them in detail to English in sixteen different countries across all continents as well as, in a separate chapter, to a history of American English. Of key interest to sociolinguists, dialectologists, historical linguists and syntacticians alike, this book provides a fascinating new picture of the growth and evolution of English around the globe.




The Americas and the Caribbean


Book Description

This volume gives a detailed overview of the varieties of English spoken in the Americas and the Caribbean, including regional, social and ethnic dialects (such as Southern US, Canadian or Chicano English) as well as Caribbean creoles from the Bahamas to Suriname. The chapters, written by widely acclaimed specialists, provide concise and comprehensive information on the phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of each variety discussed. The articles are followed by exercises and study questions. The exercises are geared towards students and can be used for classroom assignments as well as for self study in preparation for exams. Instructors can use the exercises, sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features.




New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South


Book Description

An outgrowth of the Language Variety in the South III symposium, New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches comprises forty-five original essays on a range of topics regarding the languages and dialects of the American South. Book jacket.




Legacies of Colonial English


Book Description

As a result of colonization, many varieties of English now exist around the world. Originally published in 2005, Legacies of Colonial English brings together a team of internationally renowned scholars to discuss the role of British dialects in both the genesis and subsequent history of postcolonial Englishes. Considering the input of Scottish, English and Irish dialects, they closely examine a wide range of Englishes - including those in North and South America, South Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand - and explain why many of them still reflect non-standard British usage from the distant past. Complete with a checklist of dialect features, a detailed glossary and set of general references on the topic of postcolonial Englishes, this book will be an invaluable source to scholars and students of English language and linguistics, particularly those interested in sociolinguistics, historical linguistics and dialectology.




The Indigenous Languages of the Americas


Book Description

The Indigenous Languages of the Americas is a comprehensive assessment of what is known about their history and classification. It identifies gaps in knowledge and resolves controversial issues while making new contributions of its own. The book deals with the major themes involving these languages: classification and history of the Indigenous languages of the Americas; issues involving language names; origins of the languages of the New World; unclassified and spurious languages; hypotheses of distant linguistic relationships; linguistic areas; contact languages (pidgins, lingua francas, mixed languages); and loanwords and neologisms.




Susceptibility vs. Resistance


Book Description

The topic of the volume is the contrast between borrowable categories and those which resist transfer. Resistance is illustrated for the unattested emergence of grammatical gender, the negligible impact of English and Spanish on the number category in Patagonian Welsh, the reluctance of replicas to borrow English but. MAT-borrowing does not imply the copying of rules as the Spanish function-words in the Chamorro irrealis show. Chamorro and Tetun Dili look similar on account of their contact-induced parallels. The languages of the former USSR have borrowed largely identical sets of conjunctions from Russian, Arabic, and Persian to converge in the domain of clause linkage. Resistance against and susceptibility to transfer call for further investigations to the benefit of language-contact theory.