World Englishes and Culture Wars
Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact Series

Written from a non-Western perspective, this book exposes the inadequacy of oppositions such as native versus non-native Englishes and English versus New Englishes. It explains why the label 'World Englishes' captures both what the different Englishes share and how they differ from each other. It also criticizes the kinds of power asymmetries that have evolved between the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles of English, while showing the extent to which the Outer Circle has enriched their common language and made it suitable for both its heritage and non-heritage users. The narrative is grounded in a wealth of historical knowledge, especially that of the colonization of the Outer Circle. Readers are invited to compare the spread and differentiation of English with those of Latin, which evolved into the Romance languages. This comparison may leave the reader asking: could English break up into Anglian languages?

Part I. World Englishes Today: 1. The agony and ecstasy; 2. The second diaspora; 3. Culture wars; 4. Standards and codification; 5. The power and politics; Part II. Context and Creativity: 6. The speaking tree; 7. Creativity and literary canons; Part III. Past and Prejudice: 8. Liberation linguistics; 9. Sacred linguistic cows; 10. The paradigms of marginalization; Part IV. Ethical Issues and the ELT Empire: 11. Applying linguistics; 12. Leaking paradigms; Part V. World Englishes and the Classroom: 13. Mythology in teaching; Part VI. Research Areas and Resources: 14. Research resources.

Braj B. Kachru (1932–2016) spent most of his career at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and served as Head of the Department of Linguistics (1968–79), Director of the Division of English as an International Language (1985–91) and Director of the University's Center for Advanced Study (1996–2000). He became the Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Illinois in 1992, and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund Visiting Professor at Hong Kong University in 1998. He co-founded the International Association of World Englishes and the journal World Englishes, and authored or edited over a dozen books on World Englishes and Kashmiri.