ABSTRACT
Philippine English (PhE) stands out from Outer Circle Postcolonial Englishes in having resulted from American, not British, colonialism. While almost all other World Englishes in the Outer Circle are products of a former status as colonies in the British Empire, the Philippines was an American colony between 1898 and 1946, and was anglicized remarkably quickly and efficiently. This chapter inquires into the exact nature of the relationship between PhE and American English (AmE). Legal texts on education and language policy mention “English” as a co-official language and as a possible medium of instruction in some subjects, but make no mention of AmE as an explicit norm or target. Lexical and grammatical variability has been subcategorized according to relevant parameters which have been suggested to vary between the two main varieties.
