World English

1. A list of terms useful for the study of world English.

2. Canadian stand-up comedian Russell Peters skewers Indian, Canadian, and American accents. What does he use as a default or "unmarked" accent? How would you describe it? (this clip contains profanity)

3. Information on the Englishes of Kenya.

4. Listen to the Tok Pisin broadcast of today's news from Radio Australia. You can also read the news in Tok Pisin. While many words in the printed stories are recognizable from their English forms (especially titles and names), you will not see inflected markings such as plurals or verb endings. Notice the reduplicated forms (toktok "talk") and the all-purpose preposition blong (from English belong). What other characteristic features of pidgin can you find in these excerpts of Tok Pisin? 

5. What will the English of the future look and sound like? Use your expertise in the history of English to invent a plausible version of the language in a future scenario.