The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction

The present collection of seventeen essays is a pioneering publication on previously neglected and thus “lesser-known” varieties of English (LKVEs), as they were first labelled by Richard J. Watts and Peter Trudgill (2002). As such, the volume can be considered a fitting supplement to established textbooks such as Kortmann et al. (2004) or Schneider (2007). In analysing LKVEs, it is indispensable to provide a clear definition of this category, which the editors give in the introduction (4). The LKVEs under discussion are not ESL or EFL varieties but are all used as native tongues by minorities that form distinct speech communities in clearly definable geographical areas, so that they strongly contribute to identity formation. Moreover, most of them are the result of British settlements in the colonial period and are caused by language contact, while today they belong to the endangered varieties of English.