This paper presents a diachronic trend study of linking-r in non-rhotic Standard Southern British English (SSBE) as a sound change in progress, examining its evolution over an entire 104-year span from the 1920s to the 2020s. The study investigates the changing role of linking-r and glottalization as strategies for resolving hiatus, reflecting broader phonological and sociolinguistic shifts in SSBE. Utilizing a corpus of recorded speech comprising 4,180 potential cases of linking-r (and a smaller set of potential intrusive-r cases), the analysis includes a balanced representation across different decades and gender groups, involving 312 distinct speakers. Acoustic and auditory analyzes were conducted using PRAAT to determine whether linking-r, glottalization, or hiatus were used in each potential case. The findings indicate a significant decline in the use of linking-r over time, with glottalization emerging as the predominant hiatus-resolution strategy. The findings have implications for our broader understanding of the hiatus resolution system in SSBE and other varieties of English, the broader phonological shift towards the use of glottalization in many accents of English, and the loss of rhoticity in those varieties.

Abstract Research has shown that when ‘xxx English’ is used in reference to an English variety, the attribute ‘xxx’ is more likely to be an adjective than a noun. This is true of traditional ENL and ESL varieties, whose speakers can legitimately claim that ‘English is our language’. EFL varieties tend to follow the same trend, with ‘China English’ being a glaring exception to date. Corpus analysis shows that the pre-head attribute of a noun phrase may be filled by a noun (e.g., Belgium, Canada) or an adjective derived from it (e.g., Belgian, Canadian). A pre-head nominal attribute expresses the meaning ‘a type of’ (e.g., ‘communication skill’, ‘generation gap’), while a pre-head adjective signals either a quality (e.g., ‘smart city’ – with quality of being smart) or membership of a class (e.g., ‘smart card’, distinct from other cards). A pre-head nominal attribute and its adjectival counterpart signaling ‘class membership’ thus share a classificatory function. This helps explain stylistic variation such as free alternation between ‘Scottish flag’ and ‘Scotland flag’ in the same text; nor is there anything unusual using names of countries in sports reporting (e.g., ‘Brazil national football team’). But such a stylistic shift is semantically nuanced and not always licensed (consider, e.g., ‘Ukrainian security’ and ‘Ukraine war’, where the pre-head attributes ‘Ukrainian’ and ‘Ukraine’ are not interchangeable). The adjectival form of a toponym is usually longer in speech and writing than the toponym itself. Apparently, phonology matters when naming an English variety, witness the rarity of ‘Guamanian English’ and ‘Peruvian English’.

Only is widely used as an adverb like I was there only once, a conjunction, a postdeterminer, or a diminisher for a subjunct like I was there, only I didn’t have any time. In addition, in Irish English, only can also be used as an adverbial modifier of predicative adjectives in cases where other varieties of English would prefer the modifier just, as in she is only gorgeous. The current paper investigates how adjective and participle-premodifying only is used in Irish English and whether this use is variety specific. The study is carried out on the basis of data from the GloWbE corpus and compares the Irish element of the corpus to other international varieties of English. From this corpus, examples of only are culled semi-automatically and investigated manually. The paper argues for a specific usage pattern of only in Irish English and provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of this pattern. It suggests that the use of only as a premodifying intensifier is a variety-specific feature in Irish English.

Varieties of ‘Contact Irish English’ (CIE), i.e. English spoken by native Irish speakers, are often thought to display significant phonological influence from Irish (Hickey, 1986, 2007; Ó hÚrdail, 1997). However, modern systematic acoustic descriptions of CIE speech data are scarce, relative to other Irish English (IrE) varieties. This study investigates a phonological phenomenon often attributed to an Irish influence, that of epenthesis in words with liquid+sonorant coda clusters (LSCCs) e.g., in film [ˈfɪləm], in CIE spoken in the Connemara Gaeltacht, an Irish speaking region in the west of Ireland. We examine (i) the extent of LSCC epenthesis and effects of sociolinguistic factors and (ii) whether prosodic contours for epenthesized words are realized similarly to other disyllabic words in Connemara English. 314 LSCC token from sentences produced by 12 L1-Irish bilinguals and 12 English monolinguals were acoustically analysed using Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2023) and IViE prosodic annotation (Grabe et al., 1998). Statistical findings indicate significantly higher epenthesis rates among bilinguals, with age, Language Profile Score (LPS) and cluster type affecting variation. Prosodically, epenthetic tokens predominantly portray low target tones L*_% (54%), particularly among women, irrespective of age. These results do not align with previous findings for prosodic realization of disyllabic words in Connemara English (Théveniaut & Herment, 2023). By providing empirical evidence, this study enhances our understanding of CIE phonology as well as the role of language contact in shaping phonetic and prosodic variation in bilingual communities.

Australian English (AusE) represents a distinctive variety of English with unique phonetic and lexical characteristics shaped by historical, social, and cultural factors. This study examines key phonetic features, including vowel shifts, non-rhoticity, intervocalic flapping, glottalization, and rising terminal intonation, as well as lexical characteristics such as diminutives, slang, and semantic shifts. Data were collected from the Australian National Corpus, ICE-AUS, audio recordings of spontaneous speech, and online surveys capturing regional and generational variation. Acoustic analysis and corpus-based frequency counts were employed to identify patterns, while sociolinguistic observation provided insight into usage contexts and social functions. Results demonstrate that Australian English exhibits dynamic phonetic variation and innovative lexical practices that reflect social identity, regional affiliation, and cultural adaptation. These findings highlight the interplay between linguistic structure and sociocultural factors, confirming Australian English as a socially meaningful and evolving variety of global English.

This study compares the use of two types of idioms and other fixed expressions across five African varieties of English: the first, represented by put into consideration, is about structurally altered versions of World Standard English (WSE) idioms like take into consideration. The second, represented by lie low like an envelope, is about expressions which do not have structural WSE equivalents. The study’s starting point was that both types were considered ‘typically Kenyan English’ idioms. As such, it set out to find out if these were also used, and to what extent, in Tanzanian, Nigerian, Ghanaian and South African English. The study’s second aim was to look for evidence for Mair’s notion of a ‘transnational epicentre’, specifically as it would apply to Kenyan vs Tanzanian English. To achieve both aims, data were collected from the Corpus of Global Web-based English in the form of frequencies of occurrence of the idioms under study. The study found that only 36% of the structurally altered expressions and 70% of those without structural WSE equivalents could indeed be argued to be typically Kenyan. Regarding the ‘transnational epicentre’ notion, evidence was found to support it, but not strong enough evidence.

This study aims to investigate accent-based judgments among Indonesian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), particularly the preference for native-like English accents over communicative competence. The research employed a mixed-method design involving a questionnaire distributed to 60 English Education students selected through purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews with 15 selected participants from the same cohort at Universitas Sembilanbelas November Kolaka. The questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while interview data were examined through thematic analysis. The findings reveal that most students prioritize native-like accents, especially British English, as the primary indicator of speaking proficiency, even when fluency and grammatical accuracy are weak. This preference contributes to social favoritism in academic contexts and leads to internalized insecurity among fluent speakers with Indonesian-accented English. The study highlights how accent ideology influences peer judgment and learner identity, reinforcing native-speakerism within EFL classrooms. It concludes by advocating an intelligibility-oriented approach to English teaching and the inclusion of diverse English varieties to promote more equitable and inclusive language practices.

ABSTRACT This study examined linguistic prejudice in the Philippines by comparing listener perceptions of regional Philippine English (PhE) accents: Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Bicol to Standard American English (SAE) accent. Using the verbal-guise technique, 309 Filipino participants rated pre-recorded speech samples on social attractiveness and competence. Results revealed that Tagalog English received the highest ratings across both dimensions, followed closely by SAE, while Hiligaynon and Bicol English were rated the lowest. These findings indicate the persistence of accent hierarchies that privilege accents aligned with metropolitan and Western norms. Among demographic factors, only household income showed a significant multivariate effect, indicating that socioeconomic background influences accent perception. Grounded in Communication Accommodation Theory, the study underscores how sociolinguistic hierarchies influence perceptions of social attractiveness and competence. The results highlight the need for language education and workplace policies that promote inclusivity and recognition of regional English varieties as equally legitimate forms of communication.

This study aims to investigate students' attitudes towards non-native English accents in EFL classrooms. The study examines students’ perceptions of the intelligibility and competence of non-native English varieties. However, it also highlights research gaps regarding school students’ preferences for native or non-native English accents. For this purpose, the study used a quantitative research design and administered two questionnaires: one for teachers and the other for students. Students’ questionnaires complemented those of teachers. Five teachers and twenty students were selected based on convenience sampling. The study found that almost all students and teachers prioritize non-native accents in EFL classrooms because they are perceived as easier to comprehend. The study finds students’ interest in non-native English accent (known as Pinglish, in Pakistan). The findings suggest that Pakistani middle school students prefer to speak and listen to Pinglish in their classrooms to enhance their understanding and learning of English. Moreover, this accent is easier for them to adopt than native accents. Students feel more comfortable speaking in a non-native accent.

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Phonetic detail signals morphological structure. Previous studies of English prefixes examined one dialect and speech style, and/or measured only duration. This study examines phonetic detail of prefix and nonprefix mis- and dis- (e.g. discolour, discover) in four dialects of natural conversational English: New Zealand, USA (Ohio), UK (Glasgow and Liverpool). Principal component (PC) analyses reduced 14 acoustic variables to four dimensions of variation: [s] duration, [s] spectral shape, vowel duration, and vowel quality. We assessed whether these dimensions are affected by prefixedness, either in a binary or gradient fashion, and also by control predictors of word frequency, early/late lexical stress, the fourth phoneme, and mis/dis. The dialects used different combinations of PCs to signal prefix status, with each PC used by at least one dialect. All PCs showed binary effects of prefix status. Within prefixes, vowel quality also showed a gradient morphological effect, varying with judged degree of prefixedness. Consistent with claims that prefixes, although unstressed, nonetheless convey a heavier rhythmic beat than their nonprefixed counterparts, we suggest that the observed patterns reflect how each dialect adjusts these syllables’ prosodic weight to conform with its dialect-specific speech rhythm and patterns of syllable reduction.

This paper investigates the linguistic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on different varieties of English, focusing on assertive and non-assertive linguistic markers in crisis communication. Motivated by the convergence of socio-cultural shifts and linguistic change, the study explores variations across Inner Circle (GB, US, NZ) and Outer Circle (SG, ZA) varieties within the Coronavirus Corpus (Davies 2019-). The central hypothesis posits an increased use of assertive markers and decreased use of non-assertive markers during crises. Such markers are taken from Biber’s (1988) multidimensional analysis, specifically from Dimension 4 and Factor 7. Thus, analyzing suasive verbs, conditional subordination, necessity modals, hedging strategies, downtoners, and concessive subordination, the findings reveal distinct patterns influenced by the timing and intensity of COVID-19 waves and the socio-political measures adopted. The results challenge the conventional Inner and Outer Circle dichotomy, emphasizing localized strategies in crisis communication over geographical distinctions, and they also confirm the validity of Biber’s multidimensional analysis nearly 40 years after its publication.

This study explores the use of modal verbs in Pakistani and American English through a corpus-based analysis of data drawn from the Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) corpus. The study examines five modal verbs—must, should, may, might, and would—through a comparative analysis of their semantic, pragmatic, and collocational patterns in the two English varieties. Based on the frequency counts, concordance lines and collocational analysis, the study demonstrates that Pakistani English is more likely to be used in formal registers whereas American English is more conversational. There are also differences in collocational patterns that bear the cultural and practical impacts in both varieties. The findings provide an empirical evidence of regional variation in modal verb usage, contributing to the fields of World Englishes and Corpus Linguistics. Moreover, the study provides pedagogical implications in teaching English language based on the findings of the research, emphasizing the role of contextual and regional sensitivity in teaching and learning modal verbs. The study emphasizes the significance of corpus-based approaches in investigating authentic language use across different varieties of English.

Abstract This article examines the discourse-pragmatic use of please as a marker of politeness in three African English varieties: Ghanaian English, Nigerian English, and Ugandan English, analysing its frequency, structural patterns, pragmatic functions, and variation across different text types. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analysed data from the Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ugandan components of the International Corpus of English. The findings show that please occurs most frequently in Nigerian English, followed by Ghanaian English and Ugandan English, and that it is most common in correspondences and public dialogues across all three varieties. Also, please occurs predominantly in clause-initial position and fulfils a range of pragmatic functions, including those that have not been documented in studies of other world Englishes. Overall, these findings reflect the impact of local languages and cultures on the use of please in the three African English varieties.

This paper examines English as a lingua franca (ELF) within the framework of World Englishes. It reviews Kachru’s model and highlights its contribution to the recognition of English in its global use. The paper also highlights the limitations of the model in representing the complex realities of global English use. It focuses on English language teaching and critiques the native versus non-native dichotomy. The paper explores which variety of English should be taught in classrooms, emphasizing that learner needs and communicative effectiveness should guide the contemporary ELT (English Language Teaching) practices and that they are more important than adhering to the native-speaker norm.

The global diffusion of English has fostered diverse localized varieties, among which Pakistani English (PE) continues to evolve within its multilingual and socially stratified environment. While prior research has investigated various phonological features of PE, limited attention has been paid to diphthongs—complex vowel units susceptible to sociophonetic variation. This study examines gender-based differences in the production and perception of English diphthongs among 40 non-native Pakistani English speakers (20 males, 20 females), selected through purposive stratified sampling. Adopting a mixed-methods approach within a descriptive-explanatory framework, participants completed structured production and perception tasks. Acoustic analysis, conducted using Praat software, measured formant frequencies (F1, F2), duration, and intensity. Inferential statistical tests (Shapiro–Wilk, independent-samples t-tests, and Mann–Whitney U tests) confirmed significant gender-based variation. Female speakers demonstrated longer vowel durations (p < 0.01), more dynamic formant movements, and higher spectral clarity, aligning with prior studies associating female speech with highly precised articulation and prestige-oriented linguistic behavior. In perception tasks, females exhibited significantly greater accuracy and phonological sensitivity (p < 0.05, d = 0.62), whereas males displayed relatively lower discrimination across diphthong contrasts. These findings demonstrate that gender has a significant impact on both the articulatory and perceptual dimensions of diphthong use in PE. The study offers pedagogical implications for gender-aware L2 instruction and contributes to ongoing sociophonetic research on localized English varieties. Future directions include exploring intersectional factors such as education and longitudinal change.

Pakistani English stands out among non-native English varieties, thanks to its own set of phonological quirks. Most of these come from the first languages of its speakers—Urdu, in particular, leaves a strong mark. One thing you see all the time? Vowel epenthesis. That’s just a fancy term for sticking in extra vowels to break up tricky consonant clusters, and it happens a lot. Then there’s the issue of stress—Pakistani English doesn’t always follow standard English patterns, putting the emphasis in places you might not expect. Here’s the thing, though: researchers usually look at these features on their own. Hardly anyone has zoomed in on how epenthesis and stress play off each other. That’s what this study does, using Optimality Theory as the framework. Epenthesis clearly changes syllable structure in Pakistani English, but no one’s really pinned down how that affects which syllables get stressed. Do these inserted vowels act like “real” vowels when it comes to stress, or do speakers avoid stressing them on purpose? And if they’re skipped over, what does that say about their place in the grammar of a second-language variety? To get at these questions, the study looks at real speech from people whose first language is Urdu. It picks out words where epenthesis happens and checks out the resulting stress patterns. The analysis leans on Optimality Theory to map out how different constraints—like avoiding complex clusters (*COMPLEX), resisting epenthesis (DEP-IO), and keeping prosodic structure in line (FOOTBINARITY, ALIGN-HEAD-RIGHT)—compete and interact. What comes out of the data is pretty clear: sometimes, Pakistani English speakers stress the epenthetic vowels to make the foot structure work; other times, they skip over them to keep the stress on the original, “real” vowels for contrast. This gives us fresh insight into how phonological grammar draws the line between what’s lexical and what’s epenthetic—a big question in Optimality Theory. By laying out the first formal OT account of how stress and epenthesis interact in Pakistani English, this study not only adds to what we know about PE phonology, but also pushes forward our understanding of constraint-based grammar in multilingual settings.

This RESEARCH aims to explore postgraduate students' awareness of World Englishes (WE) and its implications for English teaching in Indonesia. There are 5 Postgraduate of English Education students from the University of Muhammadiyah Makassar participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their understanding of world englishes, attitudes toward English varieties, and teaching orientations. The results showed that most students understood WE as a diverse English language, encompassing variations in accent, vocabulary, and grammatical structures that reflect the socio-cultural contexts of users. Students generally accepted non-native English varieties and emphasized intelligibility over accent uniformity or native speaker standards, although some still considered British and American English as ideal models. Pedagogically, students with higher WE awareness tended to adopt inclusive teaching approaches, value linguistic diversity, and emphasize effective communication. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating WE into teacher education to support teaching practices that are contextualized, inclusive, and aligned with global English usage.

Corpus linguistics has emerged as one of the most dynamic fields in English language studies, offering empirical insights into patterns of vocabulary, grammar, discourse, and variation across diverse contexts. Over the past three decades, the scope of corpus studies has expanded remarkably, moving beyond early text collections such as the Brown Corpus to vast learner corpora, multimodal resources, and real-time social media datasets. This review article examines the current trends shaping corpus research and highlights promising future directions. Current scholarship demonstrates an increasing interest in world Englishes, learner corpora, and corpus-assisted discourse analysis, particularly in political and media communication. At the same time, new applications in pedagogy, translation, and forensic linguistics illustrate the methodological versatility of corpus approaches. Advances in computational tools and natural language processing have further broadened possibilities for large-scale, automated analysis of language data. However, challenges remain concerning representativeness, ethical issues in digital corpora, and the balance between quantitative and qualitative methods. Looking ahead, corpus studies are expected to place greater emphasis on under-represented English varieties, including South Asian and African Englishes, as well as on the integration of multimodal data and artificial intelligence techniques. This review argues that corpus linguistics is not only consolidating its role as a central methodology in applied linguistics but also redefining how scholars conceptualize language use in global, digital, and multilingual contexts.

Multiple negation is a linguistic structure that entails the coexistence of two or more negative polarity items within the same clause (e.g., She does not have nothing) to create an emphatic meaning. Although the occurrence of this linguistic variant has been traditionally proscribed and restricted to the non-standard dialects of British and the United States English (Huddleston and Pullum 2002, 846), the impact of these exonormative varieties has contributed to its spread across non-native varieties of English (Collins 2023, 66), where it is starting to be analysed from a sociolinguistic and morphosyntactic point of view. To contribute to the existing literature on the matter, this paper aims to explore the sociolinguistic constraints that may have conditioned the presence of multiple negation in Asian Englishes. We have conducted a corpus-based study comparing the occurrence of this linguistic variant across the forementioned native varieties, and the following non-native varieties: Bangladeshi, Indian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, and The Philippines Englishes, as represented in the Corpus of Global Web-Based English. Overall, the Philippines and Singaporean Englishes show the highest frequencies of multiple negation due to the globalization of Present-day English and the morphosyntactic innovations of computer-mediated language. Nonetheless, the other Asian varieties present much lower frequencies, accounted for by the influence of British prescriptivism and their contact with their linguistic landscape.

Empirical research on language complexity has shown that languages and varieties can and do differ in their complexity. One of the key triggers responsible for this observed variation is language contact as non-native acquisition. The influence of language contact on complexity is, however, not uncontroversial: While a number of large-scale typological studies have reported that language contact decreases complexity, others find no such effect in their data. This paper offers a corpus-based perspective on the influence of language contact on morphosyntactic complexity in an English-varieties context. Precisely, I model the effect of the number of native speakers, the proportion of non-native speakers and language type-a theoretical construct based on the sociolinguistic contact history of the varieties-in a corpus database of 25 spoken English varieties. Morphosyntactic complexity is here operationalised as the number of bound grammatical markers (syntheticity) and the total number of explicit grammatical markers (grammaticity). The models show that the number of native speakers negatively correlates with syntheticity. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, the proportion of non-native speakers shows a weak positive effect on syntheticity. None of the speaker-related triggers influences grammaticity. Only language type shows a consistent negative effect on both syntheticity and grammaticity indicating that historic language contact scenarios do impact complexity. The crucial question, then, is what (non-)native speaker numbers really represent and if they are a (good) proxy for language contact. Overall, the results corroborate the controversial findings in the typological literature highlighting the importance of how complexity is operationalised.