A Handbook of Varieties of English

Volume 1: Phonology The phonetics and phonology articles usually start out with a survey of the historical and sociolinguistic background that has shaped and characterizes the variety under discussion. Phonological systems and phonetic realizations of the sounds found in a given region are then described systematically and in some detail. To ensure comparability across all contributions of the volume, authors discuss a core set of topics, including vowels (employing Wells' "lexical sets" for identification), consonants, the lexical distribution of phonetic variants (including mergers and related phonological processes), and select suprasegmental characteristics (stress, rhythm, intonation). With detailed and parallel accounts of some 50 varieties of English world-wide, including pidgins and creoles, the information available in this Handbook by far exceeds all earlier sources in comprehensiveness and systematicity of coverage. On the basis of the chapters on the individual varieties authored by more than 70 widely acclaimed specialists in the field, this volume also offers synopses on the phonological variation observable within and across the world regions of English covered in this Handbook, authored by Kate Burridge, Raj Mesthrie, Edgar Schneider and Clive Upton. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax This volume provides a unique collection of comprehensive up-to-date accounts of the salient grammatical properties of some 50 varieties and groups of closely related varieties of English around the world, including English-based pidgins and creoles. In order to make this volume an interesting and useful tool in comparative grammar reasearch, a set of core issues is addressed in all of the chapters, including tense-aspect-modality systems, auxiliaries, negation, relativization, complementation, agreement, noun phrase structure, pronominal systems, word order and information structure. In some cases and for some regions the chapters in this volume provide the first-ever systematic qualitative survey of the grammatical properties of English as spoken there. The reader may also find information on highly salient features of the vocabulary of any given variety in this volume. On the basis of the chapters on the individual varieties authored by more than 60 widely acclaimed specialists in the field, this volume also offers synopses on the grammatical variation observable within and across the world regions of English covered in this Handbook, authored by Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Raj Mesthrie and Edgar Schneider.

Volume 1: PhonologyBernd Kortmann and Edgar Schneider General introduction