Overview

This volume examines the development of forms of English in North America from the earliest founder populations through to present-day varieties in the United States and Canada. The linguistic analyses of today's forms emphasise language variation and change with a view to determining the trajectories for current linguistic change. The first part on English in the United States also has dedicated chapters on the history of African American English and the English of Spanish-heritage people in the United States. Part II is concerned with English in Canada and contains seven chapters beginning with the anglophone settlement of Canada and continuing with chapters on individual regions of that country including English in Quebec. Part III consists of chapters devoted to the history of English in the Anglophone Caribbean, looking at various creoles in that region, both in the islands and the Rim, with a special chapter on Jamaica and on the connections between the Caribbean and the United States.

Full Product Details

Author:   Natalie Schilling (Georgetown University, Washington DC) ,  Derek Denis (University of Toronto) ,  Raymond Hickey (University of Limerick)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781009205764

ISBN 10:   1009205765
Pages:   952
Publication Date:   28 February 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

General Editor's introduction Raymond Hickey; Introduction to Volume V Natalie Schilling, Derek Denis and Raymond Hickey; Part I. The United States: 1. Language change and the history of American English Walt Wolfram; 2. The dialectology of Anglo–American English Natalie Schilling; 3. The roots and development of New England English James Stanford; 4. The history of the Midland–Northern boundary Matthew J. Gordon; 5. The spread of English westwards Valerie Fridland and Tyler Kendall; 6. American English in the city: the case of Pittsburgh Barbara Johnstone; 7. New York City and Baltimore Aidan Malanoski and Michael Newman; 8. English in the southern United States Becky Childs and Paul Reed; 9. Contact forms of American English Cristopher Font–Santiago and Joseph Salmons; 10. The roots of African American English Tracey Weldon; 11. The great migration and regional variation in the speech of African Americans Charlie Farrington; 12. Rural African American English Patricia Cukor–Avila; 13. Urban African American English Nicole Holliday; 14. Puerto Rican English Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo; 15. The English of Americans of Mexican and central American heritage Erik Thomas; Part II. Canada: 16. Anglophone settlement and the creation of Canadian English Charles Boberg; 17. The lexical profile of English in Canada Stefan Dollinger; 18. Ontario English: loyalists and beyond Derek Denis, Bridget Jankowski and Sali Tagliamonte; 19. The prairies and the west of Canada Alexandra D'Arcy and Nicole Rosen; 20. Canadian maritime English: solidarity and resistance, yeah Matt Hunt Gardner; 21. English in Newfoundland William Kirwin, Sandra Clarke and Raymond Hickey; 22. English as a minority language in Quebec: a (socio)linguistic aperçu Shana Poplack; Part III. The Caribbean: 23. Early English–lexifier creole in the circum-Caribbean area Norval Smith; 24. The Caribbean anglophone contact varieties: creoles and koinés Jeffrey Williams; 25. English in Jamaica – between local and foreign Sylvia Kouwenberg; 26. The anglophone Caribbean rim Angela Bartens; 27. North American–Caribbean linguistic connections Stephanie Hackert.

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Author Information

Natalie Schilling is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Her publications include Sociolinguistic Fieldwork (2013), American English (with Walt Wolfram, 2016) and The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (with J.K. Chambers, 2013). Derek Denis is Associate Professor in the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga. His work focuses on variation, change, and their socio-ideological underpinnings in Canadian English. He has published on the topic in major linguistics and sociolinguistics journals. 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).

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