As the most widely documented language in human history, English holds a unique key to unlocking some of the mysteries of the uniquely human endowment of language. Yet the field of World Englishes has remained somewhat marginal in linguistic theory. This collection heralds a more direct and mutually constructive engagement with current linguistic theories, questions, and methodologies. It achieves this through areal overviews, theoretical chapters, and case studies. The 36 articles are divided between four themes: Foundations, World Englishes and Linguistic Theory, Areal Profiles, and Case Studies. Part I sets out the complex history of the global spread of English. This is followed, in Part II, by chapters addressing the mutual relevance and importance of World Englishes and numerous theoretical subfields of Linguistics. Part III offers detailed accounts of the structure and social histories of specific varieties of English spoken across the globe, highlighting points of theoretical interest. The collection closes with a set of case studies that exemplify the type of analysis encouraged by the volume. As attention is focused on innovative work at the interface of dialect description and theoretical explanation, the book is more succinct in its treatment of applied themes, which are given complementary coverage in other works.

"This handbook comprises 36 essays (many accessible to readers without formal training in linguistics) on varieties of English around the world... Uniformly sophisticated and up-to-date, the essays are illustrated with useful figures, charts, and maps. Summing Up: Recommended." --E. L. Battistella, Southern Oregon University, Choice

Markku Filppula is Professor Emeritus of English Language at the University of Eastern Finland. He is the author of The Grammar of Irish English: Language in Hibernian Style (1999), and co-author of English and Celtic in Contact (2008). He is co-editor of The Celtic Roots of English (2002), Dialects Across Borders (2005), Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts (2009), The Oxford Handbook of World Englishes (2017), and Changing English: global and local perspectives (2017). Juhani Klemola is Professor Emeritus of English Philology at Tampere University. His research interests are in dialect syntax, contact linguistics, and historical dialectology. He is co-author of English and Celtic in Contact (2008), and co-editor of a number of publications, including Corpora and the Changing Society: Studies in the evolution of English (2020), Changing English: global and local perspectives (2017), and Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts: Evidence from Varieties of English and Beyond (2009). Devyani Sharma is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research deals with dialect variation in postcolonial and other Englishes, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, language contact, typology, and syntax. She is the author of From Deficit to Dialect: The Evolution of English in India and Singapore (Oxford University Press 2023), and co-editor of Research Methods in Linguistics (Cambridge University Press 2013) and English in the Indian Diaspora (Benjamins 2014).