Overview

This volume focuses on the vernacular forms of English found at various locations both in Britain and Ireland as well as a few in continental Europe. The goal of these chapters is to provide histories of those dialects not necessarily leading to standard English, largely within the framework of language variation and change, which is the immediate concern of the opening chapters. There follow treatments of dialects in English including that of early London and the various regions of England. The English language in Scotland is given special treatment with chapters on Scots and Standard Scottish English. Wales and Ireland form the focus of subsequent chapters which in particular examine language contact and its effect on English in these regions. The volume closes with presentations of the development of English in the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus.

Full Product Details

Author:   Raymond Hickey (University of Limerick)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781009205825

ISBN 10:   100920582
Pages:   600
Publication Date:   28 February 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

General editor's introduction Raymond Hickey; Introduction to Volume IV Raymond Hickey; Part I. Language Variation and Change: 1. Sociolinguistic sources of change Devyani Sharma; 2. Lifespan changes Isabelle Buchstaller and Susanne Evans–Wagner; 3. Supraregional varieties, standards and vernaculars Raymond Hickey; 4. Historical divisions and perceptual dialectology Chris Montgomery; Part II. English in England: 5. Dialects dialectology and history of English Warren Maguire; 6. History of received pronunciation Anne Fabricius; 7. Early London English Laura Wright; 8. The recent history of London English Susan Fox; 9. English in South–West of England Susanne Wagner; 10. English in East Anglia David Britain and Robert Potter; 11. English in midlands Esther Asprey and Natalie Braber; 12. English in Merseyside Anthony Grant and Raymond Hickey; 13. English in Tyneside Adam Mearns; Part III. English in Wales: 14. History of English in Wales Robert Penhallurick; Part IV. English in Scotland: 15. History of Scots Joanna Kopaczyk; 16. Lexicography of Scots Maggie Scott; 17. Scots and Scottish standard English Jane Stuart–Smith and Rachel Macdonald; 18. English in Orkney and Shetland Peter Sundkvist; Part V. English in Ireland: 19. History and diffusion of Irish English Raymond Hickey; 20. Southern Irish English Raymond Hickey; 21. Northern Irish English Raymond Hickey; Part VI. English in Europe: 22. English in Channel Islands Heinrich Ramisch; 23. English in Gibraltar Christina Suárez–Gómez and Elena Seoane; 24. English in Malta Alexandra Vella and Sarah Grech; 25. English in Cyprus Sarah Buschfeld and Manuela Vida–Mannl.

Reviews

Author Information

Raymond Hickey is Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick, Ireland and former Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Duisburg and Essen, Germany. His recent publications include Listening to the Past (2017), The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics (2017), English in Multilingual South Africa (2020), The Handbook of Language Contact (2020), Sounds of English Worldwide (2023) and The Oxford Handbook of Irish English (2024).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions