8 English in North America

For American English in general, consult Finegan & Rickford (2004); there are also the books by Krapp (1925), Kurath (1949), Marckwardt (1958), Mencken (1963), Dillard (1992), Labov, Ash & Boberg (forthcoming). For regional words, phrases, and pronunciations, Cassidy & Hall’s Dictionary of American Regional English (1985–forthcoming) is invaluable; Montgomery & Hall (2004) focuses on Smoky Mountain English. For African American English see Rickford (1999) and Green (2002), for American Indian English, Leap (1993).

Considerable published information describing Canadian English exists, including broad surveys (e.g. Bailey, 1982; Chambers, 1993, 1998; Clarke, 1993; Brinton & Fee, 2001), a historical dictionary (Avis, 1991), a description and dictionary of Newfoundland English (Kirwin, 2001; Story et al., 1990), a dictionary of Prince Edward Island English (Pratt, 1988) and bibliographies of writings up to 1987 (Avis & Kinloch, n.d.; Lougheed, 1988).

9 English worldwide

Three books from the 1990s provide a perspective for the issues discussed in this chapter. Crystal (1997, 2nd edn 2003) is predominantly a retrospective account, examining the range of historical factors which have led to the current position of English in the world. Graddol (1998) looks towards the future, examining the contemporary trends likely to affect the language’s eventual role. McArthur (1998) investigates the kinds of variation encountered in the language as a consequence of its global spread. ‘Classic’ collections of areal reviews include Bailey & Gorlach¨ (1982), Cheshire (1991), Burchfield (1994) and Schneider (1997). The global story of English is placed in a more general historical linguistic setting by Ostler (2005).