ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with first-language Englishes throughout the world, from Standard English English to Jamaican creoles. It is organised along a regional, that is countryby-country, and to some extent historical, dimension rather than a typological one. It is true that linguistically, especially with regard to phonology, English English is closer to Australian, New Zealand, and South African English than to Scottish or Irish English. From a cultural and societal point of view, however, the relationships may be rather different. This is why the first sections will deal with varieties in the British Isles, although these, in turn, differ somewhat with regard to emergence and exposure to language contact (cf. 3.3). Both the order of presentation and the distribution of pages in this chapter may give the impression that we favour Britain at the expense of the USA, but the reason is simply the great variation in UK speech communities as well as the general typology of Englishes (cf. 3.2.2).
