Sounds of English worldwide / Raymond Hickey.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Language and variation -- Studying variation in sound -- The sound system of English -- Sound change in English -- Part II. The spread of English -- The colonial period -- Transported dialect features -- English in the world today -- Part III. Regions and countries -- England -- The Celtic regions -- Europe -- North America -- The Caribbean -- Africa --The South Atlantic -- Asia -- Australasia -- The Pacific region -- Pidgins and Creoles -- World Englishes and second-language varieties -- Outlook -- Appendix A. Timeline for varieties of English -- Appendix B. The history of English --Appendix C. Transcription convention -- Appendix D. Lexical sets and extensions.

"English is one of a small group of languages, to which Spanish, Portuguese also belong, which spread across the globe during the colonial period giving rise to many varieties overseas which form the focus of the present book. One can read this book for a number of reasons, e.g. to find out about different varieties of English, a very practical reason, or to learn more about phonology (sound systems) on the basis of variation in English. To accommodate both sets of potential readers, the book is divided into two parts. The first discusses general issues surrounding the study of varieties of English and change in the language while the second provides summaries of the main features of various varieties of English worldwide. This book is about pronunciation, that is about one level of language but which is intricately connected to the other levels: grammar, vocabulary and language use. Readers not acquainted with phonetics and with sound transcription should consult Appendixes C and D on this subject and use the glossary at the back of the book. To learn about lexical sets and how they are used in variety studies readers should consult Part I, Section 2 and Appendix D for more information"-- Provided by publisher.