According to Ethnologue (2020), English is currently spoken by as many as 1.268 billion people as either a first or a second language and thus ranks first among the most widely spoken languages of the world. Saying so is, however, a simplification, as what is actually used by all these speakers is one of the many varieties of English that have developed over the centuries. In this lecture, we will describe and analyze some of these varieties, taking their development and their linguistic characteristics into account. After a brief consideration of relevant basic questions and terminology (e.g. what is a language? What is a variety? What types of varieties can be distinguished? How can we model linguistic variation and varieties?), we will first concentrate on some “major” varieties, such as British English, American English and Australian English, before we turn to the Englishes spoken in Singapore, India, Africa, and the Caribbean. We will discuss the structural features of these varieties (phonology, morphology, lexis, syntax) as well as functional aspects (e.g. general pragmatic features, code-switching). To round off, we will also look at the relevance of varieties for English language teaching.
- Lehrende/r: Sandra Handl