ABSTRACT

The significance that language variation has in different contexts is a product of the history that has produced this variation. To understand the many issues related to the nature and use of English around the world, therefore, it is helpful to have an understanding of the provenance and complexion of its current global profile; to know how many people speak the language, who these people are, why and for what purposes they use English, and how it developed to become the global linguistic force it is today. This is the social matrix in which English exists – and which provides the background for the beliefs people have about it and the reasons it operates as it does in societies around the world.