The headings are formal versus informal and written versus spoken language. Functional varieties of the English language close chapter one of the thesis. The last section deals with ethnic varieties of English: Hispanic Americans, namely Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Chicanos (or Mexican Americans), Black English, African-American English, or Jewish English. Social varieties of the English language are on focus next: first, Standard English, namely cultivated speech, common speech, and uneducated speech, followed by slang. On the African continent, English in South Africa and English in West and East Africa are described with their characteristic phonological and lexical patterns respectively. The development of English as a second language in the Pacific Rim, represented by Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, is described with some specific features. English as it is spoken in South Asia is described with its major features with particular attention to the Indian sub-continent. English in Australia and New Zealand is described in next sub-chapter. Canadian English comes next, followed by Caribbean English, especially Hawaiian and Jamaican English.
It is impossible today to provide an accurate history of American dialects, but I tried to make an analysis of America’s four major regional dialects to the best of my possibilities. On the American Continent, I point out the features of English in the United States with its standard variety General American, through its relationships to British Received Pronunciation.
Then Irish, Scottish and Welsh English are analysed from both phonetic and lexical points of view. In the United Kingdom, British English is described first, with careful attention paid to Received Pronunciation (RP), the basis for comparison between varieties of English spoken worldwide. The last varieties on focus are hybrid languages, the pidgins and creoles based on the English language. In the geographical varieties section, varieties of English worldwide are described, beginning in the United Kingdom and continuing on the American continent, then in Australia and New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific, ending on the African Continent.
The first chapter begins with a short history of the English language expansion, followed by a description of the geographical, social, and functional varieties of the English language. Although linguists admit that the change in the British English language comes, nowadays, from the American continent, there are some questions that constantly trouble the minds of those interested: how great this influence is, what areas of vocabulary it affects, whether this influence is perceived as a kind of corruption or it is a normal change, and what predictions could be made for the future of the English language in the given circumstances.
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