The subject of this book is the development of English at various overseas locations during the main period of colonialism, between the early seventeenth and the late nineteenth centuries, and up to the present-day. There are as many scenarios as there are locations, each of which underwent a different kind of exposure to English and hence experienced different developments of the language later. Some major distinctions can be made, however, chiefly that between English which arose from the large-scale settlement of the overseas locations by native speakers and forms of English which arose from the functional need for a means of communication in societies with many different background languages but without a significant tradition of settler English. In both these scenarios the question of interaction with native languages looms large and is treated in detail in many contributions. The current volume is also centrally concerned with the manner in which regional forms of English developed further at new locations, interacting with each other and possibly with other languages already present at the overseas sites.

Linguistic studies which deal with such issues have appeared in the past few decades. Some have been concerned with the effects of language contact and some with the formation of pidgins which led to later creoles.