Varieties of English vary the most in pronunciation of vowels. The best known national varieties used as standards for education in non English-speaking countries are British (BrE) and American (AmE). Countries such as Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa have their own standard varieties which are less often used as standards for education internationally. Some differences between the various dialects are shown in the table "Varieties of Standard English and their features".{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pp=4–6}}

English has undergone many historical sound changes, some of them affecting all varieties, and others affecting only a few. Most standard varieties are affected by the Great Vowel Shift, which changed the pronunciation of long vowels, but a few dialects have slightly different results. In North America, a number of chain shifts such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Canadian Shift have produced very different vowel landscapes in some regional accents.

Some dialects have fewer or more consonant phonemes and phones than the standard varieties. Some conservative varieties like Scottish English have a voiceless {{IPAblink|ʍ}} sound in whine that contrasts with the voiced {{IPA|[w]}} in wine, but most other dialects pronounce both words with voiced {{IPA|[w]}}, a dialect feature called wine–whine merger. The unvoiced velar fricative sound {{IPA|/x/}} is found in Scottish English, which distinguishes loch {{IPA|/lɔx/}} from lock {{IPA|/lɔk/}}. Accents like Cockney with "h-dropping" lack the glottal fricative {{IPA|/h/}}, and dialects with th-stopping and th-fronting like African American Vernacular and Estuary English do not have the dental fricatives {{IPA|/θ, ð/}}, but replace them with dental or alveolar stops {{IPA|/t, d/}} or labiodental fricatives {{IPA|/f, v/}}.{{sfn|Roach|2009|p=53}}{{sfn|Giegerich|1992|page=36}} Other changes affecting the phonology of local varieties are processes such as yod-dropping, yod-coalescence, and reduction of consonant clusters.

General American and Received Pronunciation vary in their pronunciation of historical {{IPA|/r/}} after a vowel at the end of a syllable (in the syllable coda). GA is a rhotic dialect, meaning that it pronounces {{IPA|/r/}} at the end of a syllable, but RP is non-rhotic, meaning that it loses {{IPA|/r/}} in that position. English dialects are classified as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on whether they elide {{IPA|/r/}} like RP or keep it like GA.{{sfn|Lass|2000|p=114}}

There is complex dialectal variation in words with the open front and open back vowels {{IPA|/æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/}}. These four vowels are only distinguished in RP, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In GA, these vowels merge to three {{IPA|/æ ɑ ɔ/}},{{sfn|Wells|1982|pages=xviii–xix}} and in Canadian English, they merge to two {{IPA|/æ ɑ/}}.{{sfn|Wells|1982|page=493}} In addition, the words that have each vowel vary by dialect. The table "Dialects and open vowels" shows this variation with lexical sets in which these sounds occur.

Grammar

As is typical of an Indo-European language, English follows accusative morphosyntactic alignment. Unlike other Indo-European languages though, English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system in favor of analytic constructions. Only the personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class. English distinguishes at least seven major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Some analyses add pronouns as a class separate from nouns, and subdivide conjunctions into subordinators and coordinators, and add the class of interjections.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=22}} English also has a rich set of auxiliary verbs, such as have and do, expressing the categories of mood and aspect. Questions are marked by do-support, wh-movement (fronting of question words beginning with wh-) and word order inversion with some verbs.

Some traits typical of Germanic languages persist in English, such as the distinction between irregularly inflected strong stems inflected through ablaut (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem, as in the pairs speak/spoke and foot/feet) and weak stems inflected through affixation (such as love/loved, hand/hands). Vestiges of the case and gender system are found in the pronoun system (he/him, who/whom) and in the inflection of the copula verb to be.

The seven word classes are exemplified in this sample sentence:{{sfb|Aarts|Haegeman|2006|page=118}}

Nouns and noun phrases

English nouns are only inflected for number and possession. New nouns can be formed through derivation or compounding. They are semantically divided into proper nouns (names) and common nouns. Common nouns are in turn divided into concrete and abstract nouns, and grammatically into count nouns and mass nouns.{{sfn|Payne|Huddleston|2002}}

Most count nouns are inflected for plural number through the use of the plural suffix -s, but a few nouns have irregular plural forms. Mass nouns can only be pluralised through the use of a count noun classifier, e.g. one loaf of bread, two loaves of bread.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=56–57}}

Regular plural formation:

Singular: cat, dog

Plural: cats, dogs

Irregular plural formation:

Singular: man, woman, foot, fish, ox, knife, mouse

Plural: men, women, feet, fish, oxen, knives, mice

Possession can be expressed either by the possessive enclitic -s (also traditionally called a genitive suffix), or by the preposition of. Historically the -s possessive has been used for animate nouns, whereas the of possessive has been reserved for inanimate nouns. Today this distinction is less clear, and many speakers use -s also with inanimates. Orthographically the possessive -s is separated from the noun root with an apostrophe.

Possessive constructions:

With -s: The woman's husband's child

With of: The child of the husband of the woman

Nouns can form noun phrases (NPs) where they are the syntactic head of the words that depend on them such as determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions or adjectives.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=55}} Noun phrases can be short, such as the man, composed only of a determiner and a noun. They can also include modifiers such as adjectives (e.g. red, tall, all) and specifiers such as determiners (e.g. the, that). But they can also tie together several nouns into a single long NP, using conjunctions such as and, or prepositions such as with, e.g. the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles (this NP uses conjunctions, prepositions, specifiers, and modifiers). Regardless of length, an NP functions as a syntactic unit. For example, the possessive enclitic can, in cases which do not lead to ambiguity, follow the entire noun phrase, as in The President of India's wife, where the enclitic follows India and not President.

The class of determiners is used to specify the noun they precede in terms of definiteness, where the marks a definite noun and a or an an indefinite one. A definite noun is assumed by the speaker to be already known by the interlocutor, whereas an indefinite noun is not specified as being previously known. Quantifiers, which include one, many, some and all, are used to specify the noun in terms of quantity or number. The noun must agree with the number of the determiner, e.g. one man (sg.) but all men (pl.). Determiners are the first constituents in a noun phrase.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=54–5}}

Adjectives

Adjectives modify a noun by providing additional information about their referents. In English, adjectives come before the nouns they modify and after determiners.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=57}} In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected, and they do not agree in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases the slender boy, and many slender girls, the adjective slender does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun.

Some adjectives are inflected for degree of comparison, with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix -er marking the comparative, and -est marking the superlative: a small boy, the boy is smaller than the girl, that boy is the smallest. Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as good, better, and best. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by periphrastic constructions, with the adverb more marking the comparative, and most marking the superlative: happier or more happy, the happiest or most happy.{{sfn|König|1994|page=540}} There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.{{sfn|Mair|2006|pages=148–49}}

Pronouns, case, and person

English pronouns conserve many traits of case and gender inflection. The personal pronouns retain a difference between subjective and objective case in most persons (I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them) as well as a gender and animateness distinction in the third person singular (distinguishing he/she/it). The subjective case corresponds to the Old English nominative case, and the objective case is used both in the sense of the previous accusative case (in the role of patient, or direct object of a transitive verb), and in the sense of the Old English dative case (in the role of a recipient or indirect object of a transitive verb).{{sfn|Leech|2006|page=69|quote="Nominative is a traditional name for the subjective case"}}{{sfn|O'Dwyer|2006|quote="English has subjective, objective and possessive cases."}} Subjective case is used when the pronoun is the subject of a finite clause, and otherwise, the objective case is used.{{sfn|Greenbaum|Nelson|2002}} While grammarians such as Henry Sweet{{sfn|Sweet|2014|page=52|quote=But in that special class of nouns called personal pronouns we find a totally different system of case-inflection, namely, a nominative case (he) and an objective case (him)}} and Otto Jespersen{{sfn|Jespersen|2007|pp=173-185}} noted that the English cases did not correspond to the traditional Latin based system, some contemporary grammars, for example {{harvcoltxt|Huddleston|Pullum|2002}}, retain traditional labels for the cases, calling them nominative and accusative cases respectively.

Possessive pronouns exist in dependent and independent forms; the dependent form functions as a determiner specifying a noun (as in my chair), while the independent form can stand alone as if it were a noun (e.g. the chair is mine).{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=425–26}} The English system of grammatical person no longer has a distinction between formal and informal pronouns of address (the old 2nd person singular familiar pronoun thou acquired a pejorative or inferior tinge of meaning and was abandoned), and the forms for 2nd person plural and singular are identical except in the reflexive form. Some dialects have introduced innovative 2nd person plural pronouns such as y'all found in Southern American English and African American (Vernacular) English or youse and ye found in Irish English.

Pronouns are used to refer to entities deictically or anaphorically. A deictic pronoun points to some person or object by identifying it relative to the speech situation—for example, the pronoun I identifies the speaker, and the pronoun you, the addressee. Anaphorical pronouns such as that refer back to an entity already mentioned or assumed by the speaker to be known by the audience, for example in the sentence I already told you that. The reflexive pronouns are used when the oblique argument is identical to the subject of a phrase (e.g. "he sent it to himself" or "she braced herself for impact").{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=426}}

Prepositions

Prepositional phrases (PP) are phrases composed of a preposition and one or more nouns, e.g. with the dog, for my friend, to school, in England. Prepositions have a wide range of uses in English. They are used to describe movement, place, and other relations between different entities, but they also have many syntactic uses such as introducing complement clauses and oblique arguments of verbs. For example, in the phrase I gave it to him, the preposition to marks the recipient, or Indirect Object of the verb to give. Traditionally words were only considered prepositions if they governed the case of the noun they preceded, for example causing the pronouns to use the objective rather than subjective form, "with her", "to me", "for us". But some contemporary grammars such as that of {{harvcoltxt|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pp=598–600}} no longer consider government of case to be the defining feature of the class of prepositions, rather defining prepositions as words that can function as the heads of prepositional phrases.

Verbs and verb phrases

English verbs are inflected for tense and aspect and marked for agreement with present-tense third-person singular subject. Only the copula verb to be is still inflected for agreement with the plural and first and second person subjects.{{sfn|König|1994|page=540}} Auxiliary verbs such as have and be are paired with verbs in the infinitive, past, or progressive forms. They form complex tenses, aspects, and moods. Auxiliary verbs differ from other verbs in that they can be followed by the negation, and in that they can occur as the first constituent in a question sentence.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51}}{{sfn|König|1994|page=541}}

Most verbs have six inflectional forms. The primary forms are a plain present, a third-person singular present, and a preterite (past) form. The secondary forms are a plain form used for the infinitive, a gerund-participle and a past participle.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=50}} The copula verb to be is the only verb to retain some of its original conjugation, and takes different inflectional forms depending on the subject. The first-person present-tense form is am, the third person singular form is and the form are is used second-person singular and all three plurals. The only verb past participle is been and its gerund-participle is being.

Tense, aspect and mood

English has two primary tenses, past (preterit) and non-past. The preterit is inflected by using the preterit form of the verb, which for the regular verbs includes the suffix -ed, and for the strong verbs either the suffix -t or a change in the stem vowel. The non-past form is unmarked except in the third person singular, which takes the suffix -s.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51}}

English does not have a morphologised future tense.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=208–210}} Futurity of action is expressed periphrastically with one of the auxiliary verbs will or shall.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51–52}} Many varieties also use a near future constructed with the phrasal verb be going to.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=210–11}}

Further aspectual distinctions are encoded by the use of auxiliary verbs, primarily have and be, which encode the contrast between a perfect and non-perfect past tense (I have run vs. I was running), and compound tenses such as preterite perfect (I had been running) and present perfect (I have been running).{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=50–51}}

For the expression of mood, English uses a number of modal auxiliaries, such as can, may, will, shall and the past tense forms could, might, would, should. There is also a subjunctive and an imperative mood, both based on the plain form of the verb (i.e. without the third person singular -s), and which is used in subordinate clauses (e.g. subjunctive: It is important that he run every day; imperative Run!).{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=51–52}}

An infinitive form, that uses the plain form of the verb and the preposition to, is used for verbal clauses that are syntactically subordinate to a finite verbal clause. Finite verbal clauses are those that are formed around a verb in the present or preterit form. In clauses with auxiliary verbs, they are the finite verbs and the main verb is treated as a subordinate clause. For example, he has to go where only the auxiliary verb have is inflected for time and the main verb to go is in the infinitive, or in a complement clause such as I saw him leave, where the main verb is to see which is in a preterite form, and leave is in the infinitive.

Phrasal verbs

English also makes frequent use of constructions traditionally called phrasal verbs, verb phrases that are made up of a verb root and a preposition or particle which follows the verb. The phrase then functions as a single predicate. In terms of intonation the preposition is fused to the verb, but in writing it is written as a separate word. Examples of phrasal verbs are to get up, to ask out, to back up, to give up, to get together, to hang out, to put up with, etc. The phrasal verb frequently has a highly idiomatic meaning that is more specialised and restricted than what can be simply extrapolated from the combination of verb and preposition complement (e.g. lay off meaning terminate someone's employment).{{sfn|Dixon|1982}} In spite of the idiomatic meaning, some grammarians, including {{harvcoltxt|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=274}}, do not consider this type of construction to form a syntactic constituent and hence refrain from using the term "phrasal verb". Instead, they consider the construction simply to be a verb with a prepositional phrase as its syntactic complement, i.e. he woke up in the morning and he ran up in the mountains are syntactically equivalent.

Adverbs

The function of adverbs is to modify the action or event described by the verb by providing additional information about the manner in which it occurs. Many adverbs are derived from adjectives with the suffix -ly, but not all, and many speakers tend to omit the suffix in the most commonly used adverbs. For example, in the phrase the woman walked quickly the adverb quickly derived from the adjective quick describes the woman's way of walking. Some commonly used adjectives have irregular adverbial forms, such as good which has the adverbial form well.

Syntax

Modern English syntax language is moderately analytic.{{sfn|McArthur|1992|pp=64, 610–611}} It has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.

Basic constituent order

English word order has moved from the Germanic verb-second (V2) word order to being almost exclusively subject–verb–object (SVO).{{sfn|König|1994|page=553}} The combination of SVO order and use of auxiliary verbs often creates clusters of two or more verbs at the centre of the sentence, such as he had hoped to try to open it.

In most sentences, English only marks grammatical relations through word order.{{sfn|König|1994|page=550}} The subject constituent precedes the verb and the object constituent follows it. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent is marked only by the position relative to the verb:

An exception is found in sentences where one of the constituents is a pronoun, in which case it is doubly marked, both by word order and by case inflection, where the subject pronoun precedes the verb and takes the subjective case form, and the object pronoun follows the verb and takes the objective case form. The example below demonstrates this double marking in a sentence where both object and subject is represented with a third person singular masculine pronoun:

Indirect objects (IO) of ditransitive verbs can be placed either as the first object in a double object construction (S V IO O), such as I gave Jane the book or in a prepositional phrase, such as I gave the book to Jane {{sfn|König|1994|page=551}}

Clause syntax

In English a sentence may be composed of one or more clauses, that may, in turn, be composed of one or more phrases (e.g. Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Prepositional Phrases). A clause is built around a verb and includes its constituents, such as any NPs and PPs. Within a sentence, one clause is always the main clause (or matrix clause) whereas other clauses are subordinate to it. Subordinate clauses may function as arguments of the verb in the main clause. For example, in the phrase I think (that) you are lying, the main clause is headed by the verb think, the subject is I, but the object of the phrase is the subordinate clause (that) you are lying. The subordinating conjunction that shows that the clause that follows is a subordinate clause, but it is often omitted.{{sfn|Miller|2002|pages=60–69}} Relative clauses are clauses that function as a modifier or specifier to some constituent in the main clause: For example, in the sentence I saw the letter that you received today, the relative clause that you received today specifies the meaning of the word letter, the object of the main clause. Relative clauses can be introduced by the pronouns who, whose, whom and which as well as by that (which can also be omitted.){{sfn|König|1994|page=545}} In contrast to many other Germanic languages there is no major differences between word order in main and subordinate clauses.{{sfn|König|1994|page=557}}

Auxiliary verb constructions

English syntax relies on auxiliary verbs for many functions including the expression of tense, aspect, and mood. Auxiliary verbs form main clauses, and the main verbs function as heads of a subordinate clause of the auxiliary verb. For example, in the sentence the dog did not find its bone, the clause find its bone is the complement of the negated verb did not. Subject–auxiliary inversion is used in many constructions, including focus, negation, and interrogative constructions.

The verb do can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, where it usually serves to add emphasis, as in "I did shut the fridge." However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the rules of English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. Modern English does not allow the addition of the negating adverb not to an ordinary finite lexical verb, as in *I know not—it can only be added to an auxiliary (or copular) verb, hence if there is no other auxiliary present when negation is required, the auxiliary do is used, to produce a form like I do not (don't) know. The same applies in clauses requiring inversion, including most questions—inversion must involve the subject and an auxiliary verb, so it is not possible to say *Know you him?; grammatical rules require Do you know him?{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=114}}

Negation is done with the adverb not, which precedes the main verb and follows an auxiliary verb. A contracted form of not -n't can be used as an enclitic attaching to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb to be. Just as with questions, many negative constructions require the negation to occur with do-support, thus in Modern English I don't know him is the correct answer to the question Do you know him?, but not *I know him not, although this construction may be found in older English.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=786–790}}

Passive constructions also use auxiliary verbs. A passive construction rephrases an active construction in such a way that the object of the active phrase becomes the subject of the passive phrase, and the subject of the active phrase is either omitted or demoted to a role as an oblique argument introduced in a prepositional phrase. They are formed by using the past participle either with the auxiliary verb to be or to get, although not all varieties of English allow the use of passives with get. For example, putting the sentence she sees him into the passive becomes he is seen (by her), or he gets seen (by her).{{sfn|Miller|2002|pages=26–27}}

Questions

Both yes–no questions and wh-questions in English are mostly formed using subject–auxiliary inversion (Am I going tomorrow?, Where can we eat?), which may require do-support (Do you like her?, Where did he go?). In most cases, interrogative words (wh-words; e.g. what, who, where, when, why, how) appear in a fronted position. For example, in the question What did you see?, the word what appears as the first constituent despite being the grammatical object of the sentence. (When the wh-word is the subject or forms part of the subject, no inversion occurs: Who saw the cat?.) Prepositional phrases can also be fronted when they are the question's theme, e.g. To whose house did you go last night?. The personal interrogative pronoun who is the only interrogative pronoun to still show inflection for case, with the variant whom serving as the objective case form, although this form may be going out of use in many contexts.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pp=7-8}}

Discourse level syntax

While English is a subject-prominent language, at the discourse level it tends to use a topic-comment structure, where the known information (topic) precedes the new information (comment). Because of the strict SVO syntax, the topic of a sentence generally has to be the grammatical subject of the sentence. In cases where the topic is not the grammatical subject of the sentence, frequently the topic is promoted to subject position through syntactic means. One way of doing this is through a passive construction, the girl was stung by the bee. Another way is through a cleft sentence where the main clause is demoted to be a complement clause of a copula sentence with a dummy subject such as it or there, e.g. it was the girl that the bee stung, there was a girl who was stung by a bee.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pages=1365–70}} Dummy subjects are also used in constructions where there is no grammatical subject such as with impersonal verbs (e.g., it is raining) or in existential clauses (there are many cars on the street). Through the use of these complex sentence constructions with informationally vacuous subjects, English is able to maintain both a topic-comment sentence structure and a SVO syntax.

Focus constructions emphasise a particular piece of new or salient information within a sentence, generally through allocating the main sentence level stress on the focal constituent. For example, the girl was stung by a bee (emphasising it was a bee and not, for example, a wasp that stung her), or The girl was stung by a bee (contrasting with another possibility, for example that it was the boy).{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=1370}} Topic and focus can also be established through syntactic dislocation, either preposing or postposing the item to be focused on relative to the main clause. For example, That girl over there, she was stung by a bee, emphasises the girl by preposition, but a similar effect could be achieved by postposition, she was stung by a bee, that girl over there, where reference to the girl is established as an "afterthought".{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=1366}}

Cohesion between sentences is achieved through the use of deictic pronouns as anaphora (e.g. that is exactly what I mean where that refers to some fact known to both interlocutors, or then used to locate the time of a narrated event relative to the time of a previously narrated event).{{sfn|Halliday|Hasan|1976}} Discourse markers such as oh, so or well, also signal the progression of ideas between sentences and help to create cohesion. Discourse markers are often the first constituents in sentences. Discourse markers are also used for stance taking in which speakers position themselves in a specific attitude towards what is being said, for example, no way is that true! (the idiomatic marker no way! expressing disbelief), or boy! I'm hungry (the marker boy expressing emphasis). While discourse markers are particularly characteristic of informal and spoken registers of English, they are also used in written and formal registers.{{sfn|Schiffrin|1988}}

Vocabulary

English is a rich language in terms of vocabulary, containing more synonyms than any other language.{{sfn|Jambor|2007}} There are words which appear on the surface to mean exactly the same thing but which, in fact, have slightly different shades of meaning and must be chosen appropriately if a speaker wants to convey precisely the message intended. It is generally stated that English has around 170,000 words, or 220,000 if obsolete words are counted; this estimate is based on the last full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1989.^[14] Over half of these words are nouns, a quarter adjectives, and a seventh verbs. There is one count that puts the English vocabulary at about 1 million words—but that count presumably includes words such as Latin species names, scientific terminology, botanical terms, prefixed and suffixed words, jargon, foreign words of extremely limited English use, and technical acronyms.{{sfn|Algeo|1999}}

Due to its status as an international language, English adopts foreign words quickly, and borrows vocabulary from many other sources. Early studies of English vocabulary by lexicographers, the scholars who formally study vocabulary, compile dictionaries, or both, were impeded by a lack of comprehensive data on actual vocabulary in use from good-quality linguistic corpora,{{sfn|Leech|Hundt|Mair|Smith|2009|pp=24–50}} collections of actual written texts and spoken passages. Many statements published before the end of the 20th century about the growth of English vocabulary over time, the dates of first use of various words in English, and the sources of English vocabulary will have to be corrected as new computerised analysis of linguistic corpus data becomes available.{{sfn|Algeo|1999}}{{sfn|Kastovsky|2006}}

Word formation processes

English forms new words from existing words or roots in its vocabulary through a variety of processes. One of the most productive processes in English is conversion,{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|p=129}} using a word with a different grammatical role, for example using a noun as a verb or a verb as a noun. Another productive word-formation process is nominal compounding,{{sfn|Algeo|1999}}{{sfn|Kastovsky|2006}} producing compound words such as babysitter or ice cream or homesick.{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|p=129}} A process more common in Old English than in Modern English, but still productive in Modern English, is the use of derivational suffixes (-hood, -ness, -ing, -ility) to derive new words from existing words (especially those of Germanic origin) or stems (especially for words of Latin or Greek origin).

Formation of new words, called neologisms, based on Greek and/or Latin roots (for example television or optometry) is a highly productive process in English and in most modern European languages, so much so that it is often difficult to determine in which language a neologism originated. For this reason, lexicographer Philip Gove attributed many such words to the "international scientific vocabulary" (ISV) when compiling Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). Another active word-formation process in English is acronyms,{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|pp=120–121}} words formed by pronouncing as a single word abbreviations of longer phrases (e.g. NATO, laser).

Word origins

English, besides forming new words from existing words and their roots, also borrows words from other languages. This adoption of words from other languages is commonplace in many world languages, but English has been especially open to borrowing of foreign words throughout the last 1,000 years.{{sfn|Denning|Kessler|Leben|2007|p=7}} The most commonly used words in English are West Germanic.{{sfn|Nation|2001|p=265}} The words in English learned first by children as they learn to speak, particularly the grammatical words that dominate the word count of both spoken and written texts, are mainly the Germanic words inherited from the earliest periods of the development of Old English.{{sfn|Algeo|1999}}

But one of the consequences of long language contact between French and English in all stages of their development is that the vocabulary of English has a very high percentage of "Latinate" words (derived from French, especially, and also from Latin and other Romance languages). French words from various periods of the development of French now make up one-third of the vocabulary of English.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=196}} Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England. Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as egg and knife.{{sfn|Denning|Kessler|Leben|2007}}

English has also borrowed many words directly from Latin, the ancestor of the Romance languages, during all stages of its development.{{sfn|Kastovsky|2006}}{{sfn|Algeo|1999}} Many of these words had earlier been borrowed into Latin from Greek. Latin or Greek are still highly productive sources of stems used to form vocabulary of subjects learned in higher education such as the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics.{{sfn|Romaine|1999|p=4}} English continues to gain new loanwords and calques ("loan translations") from languages all over the world, and words from languages other than the ancestral Anglo-Saxon language make up about 60% of the vocabulary of English.{{sfn|Fasold|Connor-Linton|2014|p=302}}

English has formal and informal speech registers; informal registers, including child-directed speech, tend to be made up predominantly of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, while the percentage of vocabulary that is of Latinate origin is higher in legal, scientific, and academic texts.{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|pp=124–127}}{{sfn|Algeo|1999|pp=80–81}}

English loanwords and calques in other languages

English has a strong influence on the vocabulary of other languages.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=196}}{{sfn|Brutt-Griffler|2006|p=692}} The influence of English comes from such factors as opinion leaders in other countries knowing the English language, the role of English as a world lingua franca, and the large number of books and films that are translated from English into other languages.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=197}} That pervasive use of English leads to a conclusion in many places that English is an especially suitable language for expressing new ideas or describing new technologies. Among varieties of English, it is especially American English that influences other languages.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=198}} Some languages, such as Chinese, write words borrowed from English mostly as calques, while others, such as Japanese, readily take in English loanwords written in sound-indicating script.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=202}} Dubbed films and television programmes are an especially fruitful source of English influence on languages in Europe.{{sfn|Gottlieb|2006|p=202}}

Writing system

Since the ninth century, English has been written in a Latin alphabet (also called Roman alphabet). Earlier Old English texts in Anglo-Saxon runes are only short inscriptions. The great majority of literary works in Old English that survive to today are written in the Roman alphabet.{{sfn|Gneuss|2013|p=23}} The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters of the Latin script: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z (which also have capital forms: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z).

The spelling system, or orthography, of English is multi-layered, with elements of French, Latin, and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system.{{sfn|Swan|2006|p=149}} Further complications have arisen through sound changes with which the orthography has not kept pace.{{sfn|Lass|2000}} Compared to European languages for which official organisations have promoted spelling reforms, English has spelling that is a less consistent indicator of pronunciation, and standard spellings of words that are more difficult to guess from knowing how a word is pronounced.{{sfn|Mountford|2006}} There are also systematic spelling differences between British and American English. These situations have prompted proposals for spelling reform in English.{{sfn|Neijt|2006}}

Although letters and speech sounds do not have a one-to-one correspondence in standard English spelling, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetic changes in derived words, and word accent are reliable for most English words.{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=653}} Moreover, standard English spelling shows etymological relationships between related words that would be obscured by a closer correspondence between pronunciation and spelling, for example the words photograph, photography, and photographic,{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=653}} or the words electricity and electrical. While few scholars agree with Chomsky and Halle (1968) that conventional English orthography is "near-optimal",{{sfn|Swan|2006|p=149}} there is a rationale for current English spelling patterns.{{sfn|Abercrombie|Daniels|2006}} The standard orthography of English is the most widely used writing system in the world.{{sfn|Mountford|2006|p=156}} Standard English spelling is based on a graphomorphemic segmentation of words into written clues of what meaningful units make up each word.{{sfn|Mountford|2006|pp=157–158}}

Readers of English can generally rely on the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation to be fairly regular for letters or digraphs used to spell consonant sounds. The letters b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z represent, respectively, the phonemes {{IPA|/b, d, f, h, dʒ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, j, z/}}. The letters c and g normally represent {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, but there is also a soft c pronounced {{IPA|/s/}}, and a soft g pronounced {{IPA|/dʒ/}}. The differences in the pronunciations of the letters c and g are often signalled by the following letters in standard English spelling. Digraphs used to represent phonemes and phoneme sequences include ch for {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, sh for {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, th for {{IPA|/θ/}} or {{IPA|/ð/}}, ng for {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, qu for {{IPA|/kw/}}, and ph for {{IPA|/f/}} in Greek-derived words. The single letter x is generally pronounced as {{IPA|/z/}} in word-initial position and as {{IPA|/ks/}} otherwise. There are exceptions to these generalisations, often the result of loanwords being spelled according to the spelling patterns of their languages of origin{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=653}} or proposals by pedantic scholars in the early period of Modern English to mistakenly follow the spelling patterns of Latin for English words of Germanic origin.{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=654}}

For the vowel sounds of the English language, however, correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are more irregular. There are many more vowel phonemes in English than there are single vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, w, y). As a result, some "long vowels" are often indicated by combinations of letters (like the oa in boat, the ow in how, and the ay in stay), or the historically based silent e (as in note and cake).{{sfn|Abercrombie|Daniels|2006}}

The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that learning to read can be challenging in English. It can take longer for school pupils to become independently fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including Italian, Spanish, and German.{{sfn|Dehaene|2009}} Nonetheless, there is an advantage for learners of English reading in learning the specific sound-symbol regularities that occur in the standard English spellings of commonly used words.{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=653}} Such instruction greatly reduces the risk of children experiencing reading difficulties in English.{{sfn|McGuinness|1997}}{{sfn|Shaywitz|2003}} Making primary school teachers more aware of the primacy of morpheme representation in English may help learners learn more efficiently to read and write English.{{sfn|Mountford|2006|pp=159}}

English writing also includes a system of punctuation marks that is similar to those used in most alphabetic languages around the world. The purpose of punctuation is to mark meaningful grammatical relationships in sentences to aid readers in understanding a text and to indicate features important for reading a text aloud.{{sfn|Lawler|2006|p=290}}

Dialects, accents, and varieties

Dialectologists identify many English dialects, which usually refer to regional varieties that differ from each other in terms of patterns of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The pronunciation of particular areas distinguishes dialects as separate regional accents. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into the two extremely general categories of British English (BrE) and North American English (NAE).{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|p=107}} There also exists a third common major grouping of English varieties: Southern Hemisphere English, the most prominent being Australian and New Zealand English.

United Kingdom and Ireland

As the place where English first evolved, the British Isles, and particularly England, are home to the most diverse dialects. Within the United Kingdom, the Received Pronunciation (RP), an educated dialect of South East England, is traditionally used as the broadcast standard and is considered the most prestigious of the British dialects. The spread of RP (also known as BBC English) through the media has caused many traditional dialects of rural England to recede, as youths adopt the traits of the prestige variety instead of traits from local dialects. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to disappear.{{sfn|Trudgill|1999|p=125}}

Nonetheless this attrition has mostly affected dialectal variation in grammar and vocabulary, and in fact, only 3 percent of the English population actually speak RP, the remainder speaking regional accents and dialects with varying degrees of RP influence.{{sfn|Hughes|Trudgill|1996|page=3}} There is also variability within RP, particularly along class lines between Upper and Middle-class RP speakers and between native RP speakers and speakers who adopt RP later in life.{{sfn|Hughes|Trudgill|1996|page=37}} Within Britain, there is also considerable variation along lines of social class, and some traits though exceedingly common are considered "non-standard" and are associated with lower class speakers and identities. An example of this is H-dropping, which was historically a feature of lower-class London English, particularly Cockney, and can now be heard in the local accents of most parts of England—yet it remains largely absent in broadcasting and among the upper crust of British society.{{sfn|Hughes|Trudgill|1996|page=40}}

English in England can be divided into four major dialect regions, Southwest English, South East English, Midlands English, and Northern English. Within each of these regions several local subdialects exist: Within the Northern region, there is a division between the Yorkshire dialects, and the Geordie dialect spoken in Northumbria around Newcastle, and the Lancashire dialects with local urban dialects in Liverpool (Scouse) and Manchester (Mancunian). Having been the centre of Danish occupation during the Viking Invasions, Northern English dialects, particularly the Yorkshire dialect, retain Norse features not found in other English varieties.{{sfn|Hughes|Trudgill|1996|p=31}}

Since the 15th century, southeastern England varieties centred around London, which has been the centre from which dialectal innovations have spread to other dialects. In London, the Cockney dialect was traditionally used by the lower classes, and it was long a socially stigmatised variety. The spread of Cockney features across the south-east led the media to talk of Estuary English as a new dialect, but the notion was criticised by many linguists on the grounds that London had influencing neighbouring regions throughout history.^[16]{{sfn|Roach|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Trudgill|1999|p=80}} Traits that have spread from London in recent decades include the use of intrusive R (drawing is pronounced drawring {{IPA|/ˈdrɔːrɪŋ/}}), t-glottalisation (Potter is pronounced with a glottal stop as Po'er {{IPA|/poʔʌ/}}), and the pronunciation of th- as {{IPA|/f/}} (thanks pronounced fanks) or {{IPA|/v/}} (bother pronounced bover).{{sfn|Trudgill|1999|pages=80–81}}

Scots is today considered a separate language from English, but it has its origins in early Northern Middle English{{sfn|Aitken|McArthur|1979|page=81}} and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, particularly Scots Gaelic and Old Norse. Scots itself has a number of regional dialects. And in addition to Scots, Scottish English are the varieties of Standard English spoken in Scotland, most varieties are Northern English accents, with some influence from Scots.{{sfn|Romaine|1982}}

In Ireland, various forms of English have been spoken since the Norman invasions of the 11th century. In County Wexford, in the area surrounding Dublin, two extinct dialects known as Forth and Bargy and Fingallian developed as offshoots from Early Middle English, and were spoken until the 19th century. Modern Irish English, however, has its roots in English colonisation in the 17th century. Today Irish English is divided into Ulster English, the Northern Ireland dialect with strong influence from Scots, as well as various dialects of the Republic of Ireland. Like Scottish and most North American accents, almost all Irish accents preserve the rhoticity which has been lost in the dialects influenced by RP.{{sfn|Barry|1982|pp=86–87}}{{sfn|Hickey|2007}}

North America

North American English is fairly homogeneous compared to British English. Today, American accent variation is often increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level,{{sfn|Labov|2012}} though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents,{{sfn|Wells|1982|page=34}} known collectively as General American (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves (such as Midland and Western American English).{{sfn|Rowicka|2006}}{{sfn|Toon|1982}}{{sfn|Cassidy|1982}} In most American and Canadian English dialects, rhoticity (or r-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity (r-dropping) becoming associated with lower prestige and social class especially after World War II; this contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.{{sfn|Labov|1972}}

Separate from GA are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems, historically including Southern American English, English of the coastal Northeast (famously including Eastern New England English and New York City English), and African American Vernacular English, all of which are historically non-rhotic. Canadian English, except for the Atlantic provinces and perhaps Quebec, may be classified under GA as well, but it often shows the raising of the vowels {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} and {{IPAc-en|aʊ}} before voiceless consonants, as well as distinct norms for written and pronunciation standards.{{sfn|Boberg|2010}}

In Southern American English, the most populous American "accent group" outside of GA,^[17] rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's historical non-rhotic prestige.^[18]{{sfn|Levine|Crockett|1966}}{{sfn|Schönweitz|2001}} Southern accents are colloquially described as a "drawl" or "twang,"{{sfn|Montgomery|1993}} being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift initiated by glide-deleting in the {{IPA|/aɪ/}} vowel (e.g. pronouncing spy almost like spa), the "Southern breaking" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word "press" almost like "pray-us"),{{sfn|Thomas|2008|page=95–96}} the pin–pen merger, and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.{{sfn|Bailey|1997}}

Today spoken primarily by working- and middle-class African Americans, African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard older Southern dialects. A minority of linguists,^[19] contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a pidgin or Creole English to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins.{{sfn|Bailey|2001}} AAVE's important commonalities with Southern accents suggests it developed into a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of "broken" or "uneducated" English, as are white Southern accents, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by a large speech community.{{sfn|Green|2002}}{{sfn|Patrick|2006b}}

Australia and New Zealand

Since 1788, English has been spoken in Oceania, and Australian English has developed as a first language of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, its standard accent being General Australian. The English of neighbouring New Zealand has to a lesser degree become an influential standard variety of the language.{{sfn|Eagleson|1982}} Australian and New Zealand English are each other's closest relatives with few differentiating characteristics, followed by South African English and the English of southeastern England, all of which have similarly non-rhotic accents, aside from some accents in the South Island of New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand English stand out for their innovative vowels: many short vowels are fronted or raised, whereas many long vowels have diphthongised. Australian English also has a contrast between long and short vowels, not found in most other varieties. Australian English grammar aligns closely to British and American English; like American English, collective plural subjects take on a singular verb (as in the government is rather than are).{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pages=16–21}}{{sfn|Burridge|2010}} New Zealand English uses front vowels that are often even higher than in Australian English.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pages=24–26}}{{sfn|Maclagan|2010}}{{sfn|Gordon|Campbell|Hay et al.|2004}}

Southeast Asia

The first significant exposure of the Philippines to the English language occurred in 1762 when the British occupied Manila during the Seven Years' War, but this was a brief episode that had no lasting influence. English later became more important and widespread during American rule between 1898 and 1946, and remains an official language of the Philippines. Today, the use of English is ubiquitous in the Philippines, from street signs and marquees, government documents and forms, courtrooms, the media and entertainment industries, the business sector, and other aspects of daily life. One such usage that is also prominent in the country is in speech, where most Filipinos from Manila would use or have been exposed to Taglish, a form of code-switching between Tagalog and English. A similar code-switching method is used by urban native speakers of Visayan languages called Bislish.

Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia

English is spoken widely in South Africa and is an official or co-official language in several countries. In South Africa, English has been spoken since 1820, co-existing with Afrikaans and various African languages such as the Khoe and Bantu languages. Today, about 9 percent of the South African population speaks South African English (SAE) as a first language. SAE is a non-rhotic variety, which tends to follow RP as a norm. It is alone among non-rhotic varieties in lacking intrusive r. There are different L2 varieties that differ based on the native language of the speakers.{{sfn|Lanham|1982}} Most phonological differences from RP are in the vowels.{{sfn|Lass|2002}} Consonant differences include the tendency to pronounce /p, t, t͡ʃ, k/ without aspiration (e.g. pin pronounced {{IPA|[pɪn]}} rather than as {{IPA|[pʰɪn]}} as in most other varieties), while r is often pronounced as a flap {{IPA|[ɾ]}} instead of as the more common fricative.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pages=30–31}}

Nigerian English is a dialect of English spoken in Nigeria.^[20] It is based on British English, but in recent years, because of influence from the United States, some words of American English origin have made it into Nigerian English. Additionally, some new words and collocations have emerged from the language, which come from the need to express concepts specific to the culture of the nation (e.g. senior wife). Over 150 million population of Nigerians speak English.^[21]

Several varieties of English are also spoken in the Caribbean Islands that were colonial possessions of Britain, including Jamaica, and the Leeward and Windward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and Belize. Each of these areas are home both to a local variety of English and a local English based creole, combining English and African languages. The most prominent varieties are Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole. In Central America, English based creoles are spoken in on the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Panama.{{sfn|Lawton|1982}} Locals are often fluent both in the local English variety and the local creole languages and code-switching between them is frequent, indeed another way to conceptualise the relationship between Creole and Standard varieties is to see a spectrum of social registers with the Creole forms serving as "basilect" and the more RP-like forms serving as the "acrolect", the most formal register.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|page=115}}

Most Caribbean varieties are based on British English and consequently, most are non-rhotic, except for formal styles of Jamaican English which are often rhotic. Jamaican English differs from RP in its vowel inventory, which has a distinction between long and short vowels rather than tense and lax vowels as in Standard English. The diphthongs {{IPA|/ei/}} and {{IPA|/ou/}} are monophthongs {{IPA|[eː]}} and {{IPA|[oː]}} or even the reverse diphthongs {{IPA|[ie]}} and {{IPA|[uo]}} (e.g. bay and boat pronounced {{IPA|[bʲeː]}} and {{IPA|[bʷoːt]}}). Often word-final consonant clusters are simplified so that "child" is pronounced {{IPA|[t͡ʃail]}} and "wind" {{IPA|[win]}}.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pages=117–18}}{{sfn|Lawton|1982|page=256–60}}{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2002|pages=115–16}}

As a historical legacy, Indian English tends to take RP as its ideal, and how well this ideal is realised in an individual's speech reflects class distinctions among Indian English speakers. Indian English accents are marked by the pronunciation of phonemes such as {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} (often pronounced with retroflex articulation as {{IPA|[ʈ]}} and {{IPA|[ɖ]}}) and the replacement of {{IPA|/θ/}} and {{IPA|/ð/}} with dentals {{IPA|[t̪]}} and {{IPA|[d̪]}}. Sometimes Indian English speakers may also use spelling based pronunciations where the silent {{angbr|h}} found in words such as ghost is pronounced as an Indian voiced aspirated stop {{IPA|[ɡʱ]}}.{{sfn|Sailaja|2009|pages=19–24}}

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{{cite book |last=Boberg |first=Charles |date=2010 |title=The English language in Canada: Status, history and comparative analysis |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49144-0 |series=Studies in English Language |laysummary=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cjl/summary/v056/56.2.brock.html |laydate=2 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |last1=Bosworth |first1=Joseph |authorlink1=Joseph Bosworth |last2=Toller |first2=T. Northcote |title=Engla land |work=An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Online) |date=1921 |url=http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/009427 |accessdate=6 March 2015 |publisher=Charles University |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Brinton |first=Laurel J. |last2=Brinton |first2=Donna M. |date=2010 |title=The linguistic structure of modern English |publisher=John Benjamins |isbn=978-90-272-8824-0 |url=https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/z.156/main |accessdate=2 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Brutt-Griffler |first=J. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542006441 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00644-1 |pages=690–697 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Languages of Wider Communication }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Burridge |first=Kate |chapter=Chapter 7: English in Australia |editor-last=Kirkpatrick |editor-first=Andy |date=2010 |title=The Routledge handbook of world Englishes |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-62264-6 |pages=132–151 |laysummary=http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=4525181 |laydate=29 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Alistair |authorlink=Alistair Campbell (academic) |title=Old English Grammar |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1959 |isbn=978-0-19-811943-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite journal |last=Carr |first=Philip |last2=Honeybone |first2=Patrick |date=2007 |title=English phonology and linguistic theory: an introduction to issues, and to 'Issues in English Phonology' |journal=Language Sciences |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=117–153 |doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2006.12.018 |ref=harv}}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Cassidy |first=Frederic G. |chapter=Geographical Variation of English in the United States |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=177–210 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Cercignani |first=Fausto |title=Shakespeare's works and Elizabethan pronunciation |date=1981 |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JBlAAAAMAAJ |accessdate=14 March 2015 |laysummary=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3728688 |laydate=15 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Collingwood |first1=Robin George |authorlink=R. G. Collingwood |last2=Myres |first2= J. N. L. |chapter=Chapter XX. The Sources for the period: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes on the Continent |title=Roman Britain and the English Settlements |volume=Book V: The English Settlements |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford, England |date=1936 |lccn=37002621 |laysummary=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2143838 |laydate=15 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Beverley |last2=Mees |first2=Inger M. |year=2003 |orig-year=First published 1981 |title=The Phonetics of English and Dutch |edition=5th |place=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-10340-5 |url=http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_Collins_Phonetics_of_English_and_Dutch_pdf.pdf |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Connell |first=B. A. |title=Nigeria: Language Situation |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542016552 |accessdate=25 March 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01655-2 |pages=88–90 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv}}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last1=Conrad |first1=Andrew W. |last2=Rubal-Lopez |first2=Alma |title=Post-Imperial English: Status Change in Former British and American Colonies, 1940–1990 |date=1 January 1996 |publisher=de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-087218-7 |url=http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/143492 |accessdate=2 April 2015 |page=261 |via=De Gruyter |subscription=yes |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Cruttenden |first=Alan |year=2014 |title=Gimson's Pronunciation of English |edition=8th |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-4441-8309-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |authorlink=David Crystal |title=Language Death |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2002 |url=http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139106856 |accessdate=25 February 2015 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139106856 |isbn=978-1-139-10685-6 |ref=harv}}

{{Cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |title=English as a Global Language |author-link=David Crystal |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=69 |date=2003a |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6jPAKxTHRYC |accessdate=4 February 2015 |isbn=978-0-521-53032-3 |laysummary=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam041/2003282119.pdf |laysource=Library of Congress (sample) |laydate=4 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language |author-link=David Crystal |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2003b |isbn=978-0-521-53033-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3b3ngEACAAJ |accessdate=4 February 2015 |laysummary=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/english-language-and-linguistics-general-interest/cambridge-encyclopedia-english-language-2nd-edition |laydate=4 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite news |last=Crystal |first=David |title=Subcontinent Raises Its Voice |year=2004 |url=http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,1355064,00.html |accessdate=4 February 2015 |newspaper=The Guardian |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |chapter=Chapter 9: English worldwide |title=A History of the English language |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-511-16893-2 |pages=420–439 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |editor1-last=Daniels |editor1-first=Peter T. |editor2-last=Bright |editor2-first=William |title=The World's Writing Systems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=621jAAAAMAAJ |accessdate=23 February 2015 |date=6 June 1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |laysummary=http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195079937.do |laydate=23 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Dehaene |first=Stanislas |title=Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention |date=2009 |publisher=Viking|isbn=978-0-670-02110-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z2hjwEACAAJ |accessdate=3 April 2015 |laysummary=http://readinginthebrain.pagesperso-orange.fr/intro.htm |laydate=3 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Denison |first1=David |last2=Hogg |first2=Richard M. |chapter=Overview |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages=30–31 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Denning |first1=Keith |last2=Kessler |first2=Brett |last3=Leben |first3=William Ronald |title=English Vocabulary Elements |date=17 February 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-516803-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jz76l9RAccQC |accessdate=25 February 2015 |laysummary=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/english-vocabulary-elements-9780195168037?cc=us&lang=en& |laydate=25 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite report |author=Department for Communities and Local Government (United Kingdom) |date=27 February 2007 |title=Second Report submitted by the United Kingdom pursuant to article 25, paragraph 1 of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities |url=https://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_2nd_SR_UK_en.pdf |publisher=Council of Europe |docket=ACFC/SR/II(2007)003 rev¹ |accessdate=6 March 2015 |ref={{harvid|UKMinorityProtectionReport|2007}} |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924020227/http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_2nd_SR_UK_en.pdf |archivedate=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all }}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Deumert |first=A. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542012943 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01294-3 |pages=129–133 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Migration and Language }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite journal |last=Dixon|first= R. M. W. |date=1982 |title=The grammar of English phrasal verbs |journal=Australian Journal of Linguistics |volume=2 |issue=1|doi=10.1080/07268608208599280 |ref=harv |pages=1–42}}

{{cite book |last=Donoghue |first=D. |title=Old English Literature: A Short Introduction |publisher=Wiley |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-631-23486-9 |doi=10.1002/9780470776025 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Durrell |first=M. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542021891 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/02189-1 |pages=53–55 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Germanic Languages }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Eagleson |first=Robert D. |chapter=English in Australia and New Zealand |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=415–438 |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size |title=Summary by language size |accessdate=10 February 2015 |author= |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |ref={{harvid|Ethnologue|2010}}}}

{{cite report|author=European Commission |title=Special Eurobarometer 386: Europeans and Their Languages |date=June 2012 |series=Eurobarometer Special Surveys |url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf |accessdate=12 February 2015 |laysummary=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_sum_en.pdf |laydate=27 March 2015 |ref=harv |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106183351/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf |archivedate= 6 January 2016 |df= }}

{{cite book |editor1-last=Fasold |editor1-first=Ralph W. |editor2-last=Connor-Linton |editor2-first=Jeffrey |title=An Introduction to Language and Linguistics |edition=Second |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-06185-5 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Olga |last2=van der Wurff |first2=Wim |chapter=Chapter 3: Syntax |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages=109–198 |ref=harv}}

{{cite journal |last1=Flemming |first1=Edward |last2=Johnson |first2=Stephanie |year=2007 |title=Rosa's roses: reduced vowels in American English |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=83–96 |doi=10.1017/S0025100306002817 |url=http://web.mit.edu/flemming/www/paper/rosasroses.pdf |ref=harv|citeseerx=10.1.1.536.1989 }}

{{cite book |title=English Phonology: An Introduction |first=Heinz J. |last=Giegerich |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-521-33603-1 |series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Gneuss |first=Helmut |chapter=Chapter 2: The Old English Language |editor1-last=Godden |editor1-first=Malcolm |editor2-last=Lapidge |editor2-first=Michael |date=2013 |title=The Cambridge companion to Old English literature |edition=Second |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-15402-4 |pages=19–49 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Görlach |first=Manfred |title=Introduction to Early Modern English |date=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-32529-5 |ref=harv }}

{{cite web |last=Gordin |first=Michael D. |title=Absolute English |url=http://aeon.co/magazine/science/how-did-science-come-to-speak-only-english/ |accessdate=16 February 2015 |work=Aeon |date=4 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Campbell |first2= Lyle |last3=Hay |first3=Jennifer |last4=Maclagan |first4= Margaret |last5=Sudbury |first5=Angela |last6=Trudgill |first6=Peter |date=2004 |title=New Zealand English: its origins and evolution|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-10895-9 |series=Studies in English Language |ref={{harvid|Gordon|Campbell|Hay et al.|2004}}}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Gottlieb |first=H. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542044552 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04455-2 |pages=196–206 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Linguistic Influence }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Graddol |first=David |title=English Next: Why global English may mean the end of 'English as a Foreign Language' |authorlink=David Graddol |url=http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/ec/files/books-english-next.pdf |accessdate=7 February 2015 |date=2006 |publisher=The British Council |laysummary=http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/1/81.extract |laysource=ELT Journal |laydate=7 February 2015 |ref=harv |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212042939/http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/ec/files/books-english-next.pdf |archivedate=12 February 2015 |df=dmy-all }}

{{cite book |last=Graddol |first=David |title=English Next India: The future of English in India |authorlink=David Graddol |url=http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/ec/files/books-english-next-india-2010.pdf |accessdate=7 February 2015 |date=2010 |publisher=The British Council |isbn=978-0-86355-627-2 |laysummary=http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/3/356.extract |laysource=ELT Journal |laydate=7 February 2015 |ref=harv |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212042654/http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/ec/files/books-english-next-india-2010.pdf |archivedate=12 February 2015 |df=dmy-all }}

{{cite book |editor1-last=Graddol |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Leith |editor2-first=Dick |editor3-last=Swann |editor3-first=Joan |editor4-last=Rhys |editor4-first=Martin |editor5-last=Gillen |editor5-first=Julia |title=Changing English |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415376792/ |accessdate=11 February 2015 |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-37679-2 |page= |laysummary=|laydate= |ref={{harvid|Graddol|Leith|Swann et al.|2007}}}}

{{cite book |last=Green |first=Lisa J. |date=2002 |title=African American English: a linguistic introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Greenbaum |first1=S. |last2=Nelson |first2=G. |title=An introduction to English grammar |date=1 January 2002 |edition=Second |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-43741-8 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book|last=Halliday|first=M. A. K.|last2=Hasan|first2=Ruqaiya|date=1976|title=Cohesion in English|publisher=Pearson Education ltd.|ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Hancock |first=Ian F. |last2=Angogo |first2=Rachel |chapter=English in East Africa |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |pages=415–438 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Harbert |first=Wayne |title=The Germanic Languages |url=http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511755071 |accessdate=26 February 2015 |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01511-0 |series=Cambridge Language Surveys |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511755071 |laysummary=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40492966 |laysource=Language (journal of the Linguistic Society of America) |laydate=26 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Hickey |first=R. |date=2007 |title=Irish English: History and present-day forms |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite book|editor-last=Hickey|editor-first=R. |date=2005|title=Legacies of colonial English: Studies in transported dialects|publisher=Cambridge University Press|ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Hogg |first=Richard M. |chapter=Chapter 3: Phonology and Morphology |editor-last=Hogg |editor-first=Richard M. |title=The Cambridge History of the English Language |volume=1: The Beginnings to 1066 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-521-26474-7 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521264747 |pages=67–168 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Hogg |first1=Richard M. |chapter=Chapter7: English in Britain |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages=360–61 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web|title=How English evolved into a global language|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12017753 |date=20 December 2010 |publisher=BBC |accessdate=9 August 2015 |ref={{harvid|How English evolved into a global language|2010}}}}

{{cite web |author= |title=How many words are there in the English language? |work=Oxford Dictionaries Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2015 |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/howmanywords |accessdate=2 April 2015 |quote=How many words are there in the English language? There is no single sensible answer to this question. It's impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it's so hard to decide what actually counts as a word. |ref={{harvid|HowManyWords|2015}}}}

{{cite book |last1=Huddleston |first1=Rodney |last2=Pullum |first2=Geoffrey K. |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |date=15 April 2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-43146-0 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/grammar-and-syntax/cambridge-grammar-english-language |accessdate=10 February 2015 |page= |laysummary=http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~culicove/Publications/CGEL_Review.pdf |laydate=10 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |first1=Arthur |last1=Hughes |last2=Trudgill |first2=Peter |date=1996 |title=English Accents and Dialects |edition=3rd |publisher= Arnold Publishers |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=International Civil Aviation Organization |title=Personnel Licensing FAQ |url=http://www.icao.int/safety/airnavigation/pages/peltrgfaq.aspx#anchor14 |accessdate=16 December 2014 |publisher=International Civil Aviation Organization – Air Navigation Bureau |date=2011 |at=In which languages does a licence holder need to demonstrate proficiency? |quote=Controllers working on stations serving designated airports and routes used by international air services shall demonstrate language proficiency in English as well as in any other language(s) used by the station on the ground. |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=International Maritime Organization |title=IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases |date=2011 |url=http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Safety/Navigation/Pages/StandardMarineCommunicationPhrases.aspx |accessdate=16 December 2014 |ref=harv}}

{{Cite book |last=International Phonetic Association |authorlink=International Phonetic Association |date=1999 |title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-65236-0 |ref=harv}}

{{cite journal |last=Jambor |first=Paul Z. |title=English Language Imperialism: Points of View |journal=Journal of English as an International Language |date=December 2007 |volume =2 |pages=103–123 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Jespersen |first=Otto |title=The Philosophy of Grammar |chapter=Case: The number of English cases |publisher=Routledge |origyear=1924 |date=2007 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kachru |first=B. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542006453 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00645-3 |pages=195–202 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=English: World Englishes }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Kastovsky |first1=Dieter |chapter=Chapter 4: Vocabulary |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages=199–270 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |editor1-last=König |editor1-first=Ekkehard |editor2-last=van der Auwera |editor2-first=Johan |title=The Germanic Languages |date=1994 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-28079-2 |series=Routledge Language Family Descriptions |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415280792/ |accessdate=26 February 2015 |laysummary=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4176538 |laydate=26 February 2015 |ref=harv}} The survey of the Germanic branch languages includes chapters by Winfred P. Lehmann, Ans van Kemenade, John Ole Askedal, Erik Andersson, Neil Jacobs, Silke Van Ness, and Suzanne Romaine.

{{cite book |last=König |first=Ekkehard |chapter=17. English |pages=532–562 |editor1-last=König |editor1-first=Ekkehard |editor2-last=van der Auwera |editor2-first=Johan |title=The Germanic Languages |date=1994 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-28079-2 |series=Routledge Language Family Descriptions |chapter-url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415280792/ |accessdate=26 February 2015 |laysummary=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4176538 |laydate=26 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Labov |first=W. |date=1972 |title=Sociolinguistic patterns |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |chapter= 13. The Social Stratification of (R) in New York City Department Stores |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Labov |first=W. |date=2012|title=Dialect Diversity in America: The Politics of Language Change|publisher=University of Virginia Press |chapter= 1. About Language and Language Change |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Labov |first1=William |authorlink1=William Labov |last2=Ash |first2=Sharon |last3=Boberg |first3=Charles |date=2006 |title=The Atlas of North American English |location=Berlin |publisher=de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-016746-7 |url=http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/178229?rskey=eUyN34&result=2 |accessdate=2 April 2015 |via=De Gruyter |subscription=yes |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Lanham |first=L. W. |chapter=English in South Africa |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=324–352 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Lass |first=Roger |chapter=2. Phonology and Morphology |editor1-last=Blake |editor1-first=Norman |title=Cambridge History of the English Language |volume=II: 1066–1476 |pages=103–123 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1992 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Lass |first=Roger |chapter=Chapter 3: Phonology and Morphology |editor-first=Roger |editor-last=Lass |title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III: 1476–1776 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |date=2000 |pages=56–186 |ref=harv}}

{{citation |last=Lass |first=Roger |chapter=South African English |editor-last=Mesthrie |editor-first=Rajend |date=2002 |title=Language in South Africa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79105-2}}

{{cite book |last1=Lass |first1=Roger |chapter=Chapter 2: Phonology and Morphology |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages=46–47 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Lawler |first=J. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542045739 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04573-9 |pages=290–291 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Punctuation }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Lawton |first=David L. |chapter=English in the Caribbean |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=251–280 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Leech |first=G. N. |date=2006 |title=A glossary of English grammar |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |url=http://english.fullerton.edu/publications/clnarchives/2012winter/angus-chng%20contemp_eng.pdf |last1=Leech |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Hundt |first2=Marianne |last3=Mair |first3=Christian |last4=Smith |first4=Nicholas |title=Change in contemporary English: a grammatical study |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=22 October 2009 |isbn=978-0-521-86722-1 |laysummary=http://english.fullerton.edu/publications/clnarchives/2012winter/angus-chng%20contemp_eng.pdf |laydate=29 March 2015 |ref=harv|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402140536/http://english.fullerton.edu/publications/clnarchives/2012winter/angus-chng%20contemp_eng.pdf |archivedate=2 April 2015 |accessdate=22 September 2016}}

{{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=L. |last2=Crockett |first2=H. J. |date=1966 |title=Speech Variation in a Piedmont Community: Postvocalic r*|journal=Sociological Inquiry |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=204–226 |ref=harv |doi=10.1111/j.1475-682x.1966.tb00625.x}}

{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=David C. S. |title=Between English and Esperanto: what does it take to be a world language? |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |volume=2003 |issue=164 |pages=33–63 |date=2003 |issn=0165-2516 |doi=10.1515/ijsl.2003.055 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Lim |first1=L. |last2=Ansaldo |first2=U. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542017016 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01701-6 |pages=387–389 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Singapore: Language Situation }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Maclagan |first=Margaret |chapter=Chapter 8: The English(es) of New Zealand |editor-last=Kirkpatrick |editor-first=Andy |date=2010 |title=The Routledge handbook of world Englishes |publisher=Routledge |pages=151–164 |isbn=978-0-203-84932-3 |laysummary=http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=4525181 |laydate=29 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=MacMahon |first=M. K. |date=2006 |chapter=16. English Phonetics |editor1=Bas Aarts |editor2=April McMahon |title=The Handbook of English Linguistics |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |pages=359–382 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author= |url=https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/ |title=Macquarie Dictionary |website=Australia's National Dictionary & Thesaurus Online | Macquarie Dictionary |date=2015 |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Group Australia |accessdate=15 February 2015 |registration=yes |ref={{harvid|Macquarie Dictionary|2015}}}}

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{{cite book |last=Mair |first=Christian |date=2006 |title=Twentieth-century English: History, variation and standardization |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Mazrui |first1=Ali A. |last2=Mazrui |first2=Alamin |title=The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the African Experience |date=3 August 1998 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-51429-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6lQTPxdYx8kC |accessdate=15 February 2015 |laysummary=http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo3618917.html |laydate=15 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |editor-last=McArthur |editor-first=Tom |title=The Oxford Companion to the English Language |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-19-214183-5 |laysummary=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192800619.001.0001/acref-9780192800619 |laydate=15 February 2015 |ref=harv|doi=10.1093/acref/9780192800619.001.0001 }}

{{Cite book |last1=McCrum |first1=Robert |last2=MacNeil |first2=Robert |last3=Cran |first3=William |title=The Story of English |location=London |date=2003 |edition=Third Revised |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-200231-5 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=McGuinness |first=Diane |title=Why Our Children Can't Read, and what We Can Do about it: A Scientific Revolution in Reading |authorlink=Diane McGuinness |date=1997 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-83161-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-q02ZBKh3wC |accessdate=3 April 2015 |laysummary=http://fee.org/freeman/detail/why-our-children-cant-read-and-what-we-can-do-about-it |laydate=3 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Meierkord |first=C. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542006416 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00641-6 |pages=163–171 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Lingua Francas as Second Languages }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite web |author= |title=English |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date=26 February 2015 |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/English |accessdate=26 February 2015 |ref={{harvid|Merriam Webster|2015}}}}

{{cite journal |last=Mesthrie |first=Rajend |title=New Englishes and the native speaker debate |journal=Language Sciences |date=2010 |issn=0388-0001 |doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2010.08.002 |pages=594–601 |ref=harv |volume=32|issue=6 }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Jim |date=2002 |title=An Introduction to English Syntax |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |ref=harv}}

{{cite journal |last=Montgomery |first=M. |date=1993 |title=The Southern Accent—Alive and Well |journal=Southern Cultures |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=47–64 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mountford |first=J. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542050185 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/05018-5 |pages=156–159 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=English Spelling: Rationale }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mufwene |first=S. S. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542012918 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01291-8 |pages=613–616 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Language Spread }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{Cite book |last=Nation |first=I. S. P. |title=Learning Vocabulary in Another Language |authorlink= Paul Nation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=15 March 2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sKqx8k8gYTkC |accessdate=4 February 2015 |page=477 |isbn=978-0-521-80498-1 |laysummary=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001269892.pdf |laydate=4 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=National Records of Scotland |title=Census 2011: Release 2A |series=Scotland's Census 2011 |date=26 September 2013 |url=http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/news/census-2011-release-2a |accessdate=25 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Neijt |first=A. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542045740 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04574-0 |pages=68–71 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Spelling Reform }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last1=Nevalainen |first1=Terttu |last2=Tieken-Boon van Ostade |first2=Ingrid |chapter=Chapter 5: Standardization |editor1-last=Denison |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Hogg |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=A History of the English language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-71799-1 |pages= |ref=harv}}

{{cite web|author=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |title=Census 2011: Key Statistics for Northern Ireland December 2012 |periodical=Statistics Bulletin |date=11 December 2012 |url=http://www.nisra.gov.uk/Census/key_report_2011.pdf |accessdate=16 December 2014 |at=Table KS207NI: Main Language |ref=harv |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224033625/http://www.nisra.gov.uk/Census/key_report_2011.pdf |archivedate=24 December 2012 |df= }}

{{cite book |last=Northrup |first=David |title=How English Became the Global Language |date=20 March 2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-30306-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPAlPeB6IvQC |accessdate=25 March 2015 |laysummary=http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/how-english-became-the-global-language-david-northrup/?K=9781137303066 |laydate=25 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |first=Bernard |last=O'Dwyer |title= Modern English Structures, second edition: Form, Function, and Position |publisher=Broadview Press |date=2006 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=Office for National Statistics |title=Language in England and Wales, 2011 |date=4 March 2013 |periodical=2011 Census Analysis |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/language-in-england-and-wales-2011/rpt---language-in-england-and-wales--2011.html |accessdate=16 December 2014 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author= |title=Oxford Learner's Dictionaries |url=http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ |accessdate=25 February 2015 |publisher=Oxford|ref={{harvid|Oxford Learner's Dictionary|2015}}}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Patrick |first=P. L. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006a |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542017600 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01760-0 |pages=88–90 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Jamaica: Language Situation }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Patrick |first=P. L. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006b |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542050926 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/05092-6 |pages=159–163 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=English, African-American Vernacular }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last1=Payne |last2=Huddleston |first1=John |first2=Rodney |chapter=5. Nouns and noun phrases |editor1-last=Huddleston |editor2-last=Pullum |editor1-first=R. |editor2-first=G. K. |date=2002 |title=The Cambridge Grammar of English |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=323–522 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Phillipson |first=Robert |title=English-Only Europe?: Challenging Language Policy |date=28 April 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-44349-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HiCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |accessdate=15 February 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Richter |first=Ingo |chapter=Introduction |editor1-last=Richter |editor1-first=Dagmar |editor2-last=Richter |editor2-first=Ingo |editor3-last=Toivanen |editor3-first=Reeta |display-editors = 3 |editor4-last=Ulasiuk |editor4-first=Iryna |title=Language Rights Revisited: The challenge of global migration and communication |date=1 January 2012 |publisher=BWV Verlag |isbn=978-3-8305-2809-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u9kBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |accessdate=2 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

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{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Orrin |title=Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages |publisher=Stanford University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-8047-2221-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAeJoF55hhsC |accessdate=5 April 2015 |laysummary=http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=3026 |laydate=5 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Romaine |first=Suzanne |chapter=English in Scotland |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=56–83 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Romaine |first=Suzanne |chapter=Chapter 1: Introduction |title=Cambridge History of the English Language |volume=IV: 1776–1997 |editor-last=Romaine |editor-first=Suzanne |pages=01–56 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1999 |isbn=978-0-521-26477-8 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521264778.002 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Romaine |first=S. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542006465 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00646-5 |pages=584–596 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Language Policy in Multilingual Educational Contexts }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite web |title=The Routes of English |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/storysofar/programme4_6.shtml |date=1 August 2015 |ref={{sfnref|ref=harvid|The Routes of English}}}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Rowicka |first=G. J. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542018484 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01848-4 |pages=194–195 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Canada: Language Situation }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Rubino |first=C. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542017363 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01736-3 |pages=323–326 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Philippines: Language Situation }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite web |last=Ryan |first=Camille |title=Language Use in the United States: 2011 |periodical=American Community Survey Reports |date=August 2013 |page=1 |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf |accessdate=16 December 2014 |ref=harv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205101044/http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf |archive-date=5 February 2016 |dead-url=yes |df=dmy-all }}

{{cite book |last=Sailaja |first=Pingali |title=Indian English |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-7486-2595-6 |series=Dialects of English |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntxWxuoRBiwC |accessdate=5 April 2015 |laysummary=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/indian-english-9780748625949?cc=us&lang=en& |laydate=5 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Schiffrin |first=Deborah |date=1988 |title=Discourse Markers |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-35718-0 |series=Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hs7J-WqPtPAC |accessdate=5 April 2015 |laysummary=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/discourse-markers |laydate=5 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Schneider |first=Edgar |title=Postcolonial English: Varieties Around the World |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-53901-2 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=QIE6zGSd8okC |accessdate=5 April 2015 |laysummary=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/postcolonial-english-varieties-around-world |laydate=5 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite journal |last=Schönweitz |first=Thomas |title=Gender and Postvocalic /r/ in the American South: A Detailed Socioregional Analysis |journal=American Speech |volume=76 |issue=3 |date=2001 |pages=259–285 |ref=harv |doi=10.1215/00031283-76-3-259}}

{{cite book |last=Shaywitz |first=Sally E. |title=Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level |date=2003 |publisher=A.A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-375-40012-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXbZ1QInSF0C |accessdate=3 April 2015 |laysummary=http://dyslexia.yale.edu/book_Overcoming.html |laydate=3 April 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |last=Sheidlower |first=Jesse |title=How many words are there in English? |date=10 April 2006 |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2139611/ |accessdate=2 April 2015 |quote=The problem with trying to number the words in any language is that it's very hard to agree on the basics. For example, what is a word? |ref=harv}}

• {{cite book|last=Scheler|first=Manfred|year=1977|title=Der englische Wortschatz [English Vocabulary]|location=Berlin|publisher=E. Schmidt|language=German|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GchZAAAAMAAJ|isbn=978-3-503-01250-3|ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Jeremy J. |title=Old English: a linguistic introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2 April 2009 |isbn=978-0-521-86677-4 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=Statistics Canada |title=Population by mother tongue and age groups (total), 2011 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories |date=22 August 2014 |url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/hlt-fst/lang/Pages/highlight.cfm?TabID=1&Lang=E&Asc=0&PRCode=01&OrderBy=2&View=1&tableID=401&queryID=1&Age=1#TableSummary |accessdate=25 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite web |author=Statistics New Zealand |title=2013 QuickStats About Culture and Identity |date=April 2014 |url=http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Census/2013%20Census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-culture-identity/quickstats-culture-identity.pdf |page=23 |accessdate=25 March 2015 |ref=harv |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115195639/http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Census/2013%20Census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-culture-identity/quickstats-culture-identity.pdf |archivedate=15 January 2015 |df=dmy-all }}

{{cite book|publisher=Statistics South Africa |title=Census 2011: Census in Brief |id=Report No. 03‑01‑41 |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-621-41388-5 |url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf |chapter=Population by first language spoken and province |ref= {{SfnRef|Statistics South Africa|2012}} |page=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151113164744/http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf |archivedate=13 November 2015|dead-url=no |chapter-url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf#page=28 |editor-first=Pali |editor-last=Lehohla |location=Pretoria |df= }}

{{cite book |last1=Svartvik |first1=Jan |last2=Leech |first2=Geoffrey |title=English – One Tongue, Many Voices |date=12 December 2006 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-1830-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UqZsQgAACAAJ |accessdate=5 March 2015 |laysummary=http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=116884 |laydate=16 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Swan |first=M. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542050586 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/05058-6 |pages=149–156 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=English in the Present Day (Since ca. 1900) }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Sweet |first=Henry |title=A New English Grammar |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2014 |origyear=1892 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Erik R. |date=2008 |chapter=Rural Southern white accents |title=Varieties of English |volume=2: The Americas and the Caribbean |pages=87–114 |editor=Edgar W. Schneider |publisher=de Gruyter |chapter-url=http://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110208405/9783110208405.1.87/9783110208405.1.87.xml |accessdate=2 April 2015 |via=De Gruyter |subscription=yes |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Thomason |first=Sarah G. |authorlink=Sarah Thomason |last2=Kaufman |first2=Terrence |authorlink2=Terrence Kaufman |title=Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics |publisher=University of California Press |date=1988 |isbn=978-0-520-91279-3 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Todd |first=Loreto |chapter=The English language in West Africa |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=281–305 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Toon |first=Thomas E. |chapter=Variation in Contemporary American English |editor1-last=Bailey |editor1-first=Richard W. |editor2-last=Görlach |editor2-first=Manfred |title=English as a World Language |pages=210–250 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-3-12-533872-2 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Toon |first=Thomas E. |chapter=Old English Dialects |editor-last=Hogg |editor-first=Richard M. |title=The Cambridge History of the English Language |volume=1: The Beginnings to 1066 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-521-26474-7 |pages=409–451 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last1=Trask |first1=Larry |last2=Trask |first2=Robert Lawrence |title=Why Do Languages Change? |date=January 2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83802-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qoZzBgCmFMC |accessdate=5 March 2015 |laysummary=|laydate= |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Trudgill |first=Peter |date=1999 |title=The Dialects of England |edition=2nd |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-631-21815-9 |laysummary=http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0631218157.html |laydate=27 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Trudgill |first=P. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542015066 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01506-6 |page=14 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Accent }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite book |last=Trudgill |first=Peter |first2=Jean |last2=Hannah |date=2002 |title=International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English |edition=4th |location=London |publisher=Hodder Education |isbn=978-0-340-80834-4 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Trudgill |first=Peter |first2=Jean |last2=Hannah |date=1 January 2008 |title=International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English |edition=5th |location=London |publisher=Arnold |isbn=978-0-340-97161-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e8u8MR8MNaEC |accessdate=26 March 2015 |laysummary=http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780340971611/ |laydate=26 March 2015 |ref=harv|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402131243/http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780340971611/|archive-date=2 April 2015}}

{{cite web |author=United Nations |title=Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the United Nations |date=2008 |url=https://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/visitors/shared/documents/pdfs/Pub_United%20Nations_Everything%20U%20Always%20wanted%20to%20know.pdf |accessdate=4 April 2015 |quote=The working languages at the UN Secretariat are English and French. |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Wardhaugh |first=Ronald |title=An Introduction to Sociolinguistics |edition=Sixth |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-4051-8668-1 |series=Blackwell textbooks in Linguistics; 4 |ref=harv}}

{{cite book |last=Watts |first=Richard J. |title=Language Myths and the History of English |date=3 March 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-532760-1 |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327601.001.0001/acprof-9780195327601 |accessdate=10 March 2015 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327601.001.0001 |laysummary=http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=4544145 |laydate=10 March 2015 |ref=harv}}

{{Accents of English}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wojcik |first=R. H. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542050811 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/05081-1 |pages=139–142 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Controlled Languages }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wolfram |first=W. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of language & linguistics |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-044299-0 |chapter-url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542042565 |accessdate=6 February 2015 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04256-5 |pages=333–341 |laysummary=http://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-language-and-linguistics-14-volume-set/brown/978-0-08-044854-1 |laydate=6 February 2015 |ref=harv|chapter=Variation and Language: Overview |title=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics }}{{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=ScienceDirect}}

External links

• Accents of English from Around the World (University of Edinburgh) Sound files comparing how 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world
• International Dialects of English Archive - recordings of English dialects and international L2 accents