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Who wants Swiss English?

Why a ‘lay-oriented’ sociolinguistics matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2013

Adrian Pablé
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Extract

Recently, new varieties of English, in particular insular ones, have been discovered and described by sociolinguists: Bermuda English, Falkland Islands English, St Helena English, Tristan da Cunha English, to name but a few. Concomitantly, applied linguists have started to take an interest in ‘lingua franca English’ as used in countries where English has no official status. Euro-English and, more recently, Swiss English are examples of such English as a Lingua Franca (hereafter, ELF) varieties. Any scientific exploration into unknown territory presupposes that there is something to be found – ideally something that already has a name. Quests for new varieties of English are motivated by the same fundamental desire, namely, to find ‘X-an English’ (Groves, 2011: 35).

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 26 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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