World Englishes, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 280–291, 2011. 0883-2919 REVIEWS Varieties of English: Vol. 2: The Americas and the Caribbean. Edited by Edgar W. Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008, xxix+800 pp. incl. CD-ROM. Reviewed by STEFAN DOLLINGER∗ Landmark publications in any field are few and far between. The four-volume textbook on varieties of English around the world, of which I discuss volume 2, English varieties in North America and the Caribbean, is based on one such landmark publication, the twovolume Handbook of Varieties of English (Kortmann et al. 2004; Schneider et al. 2004). The Handbook has quickly taken its place as a major resource for world Englishes and has been reviewed most favourably. The question to be answered here, then, is how effectively the texts from the Handbook, rearranged in inexpensively-priced paperbacks (US$ 29.95 or equivalent), by the major world regions, serve as a textbook for classroom use. The texts in the paperback series include, just as the Handbook, a general introduction (Kortmann and Schneider), a volume introduction (Schneider) and two synopses of variation, one for phonology and one for morphology and syntax (both by Schneider). The introductory texts have been, to a minor degree, adapted to fit the different context of the textbook, but are otherwise unchanged. The general introduction explains the rationale behind the textbook series to “cover all main national standard varieties, distinctive regional, ethnic and social varieties, major contact varieties (pidgins and creoles) as well as major varieties of English as a Second Language” (p. 2). Each volume (if you request so when ordering), not just the entire series, comes with a multi-media CD-ROM, which includes English sound samples world-wide, not just for the target region. The volume introduction identifies two ‘baseline papers’: Kretzschmar on the phonology of Standard American English and Murray and Simon on the grammatical feature of Colloquial American English, which are appropriate starting points for classroom discussions to set a background against which to compare the other varieties. The papers are organized in two sections, one on phonology, the other on morphology and syntax. The sections are concluded with very useful synopses on the phonological and, respectively, grammatical features. Some regions have clearly paired papers, with one paper each in the phonology and grammar sections, while other regions do not. Phonology papers are available on New England (Nagy and Roberts), New York, Philadelphia and Northern cities (Gordon), rural White Southern US (Thomas), the urban Southern US (Tillery and Bailey), the West and Midwest US (Gordon), mainland Canada (Boberg), Newfoundland (Clarke), African American vernacular English (Edwards), Gullah (Weldon), Cajun English – the English of people of Acadian French descent (Dubois and Horvath), and Chicano English. In the Caribbean, papers are included on Bahamian English (Childs and Wolfram), Jamaican English and Creoles (Devonish and Harry), the Eastern Carribbean (Aceto), Bajan – the creole of Barbados (Blake), the Creoles of Trinidad and Tobago (Youssef and James) and Surinam (Smith and Haabo). ∗ Department  C 2011 of English, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Email: dstefan@dchp.ca Blackwell Publishing Ltd Reviews 281 A real boon is the inclusion of the multi-media CD-ROM: here, both instructors and students will find sound samples that will be useful in class presentations. The CD-ROM is a most welcome authoritative resource, even though not all varieties are illustrated with audio samples. For instance, Jamaican Creole and African-American English are two of 18 varieties world-wide (of a total of 68) for which no sound files are available. Under the CD-ROM heading section of ‘Interactive Maps’, a bird’s eye view is applied to the world’s Englishes based on the Handbook’s individual papers. 179 phonological features and 76 morphosyntactic features, derived from the general editors’ familiarity with varieties of world English, provide the basis for a classification in a three-tiered system of frequency (frequent, occurring, rare) and allow a graphic representation of each feature, be it GOOSE fronting (#64), intervocalic /v/ realized as /b/ (#158) or, in morphosyntax, multiple negation (#44). This feature distribution is highly interesting for the comparison of a particular variety in a global context, and offers, despite an unavoidable fuzziness due to scope, a pedagogically interesting comparative viewpoint. The global synopses in the Handbook are two texts that build precisely on this information, but, unfortunately, were not included in the textbook volumes, probably for reasons of space; they alone would have added 90 more pages. In the morphology and syntax section the reader will have to look somewhat for information on varieties that are not matched with a phonological paper. Someone working on New England English or mainland Canadian English will find useful grammatical information in the Colloquial American English paper (Murray and Simon). Wolfram’s paper on rural and ethnic varieties of the American Southeast presents a comparative analysis of seven varieties and will, together with Montgomery’s paper on Appalachian English (AAVE), offer variables of rural North American speech. African American Vernacular English is discussed in its urban varieties (Wolfram), and its historical development (Kautzsch); Kautzsch’s paper is the only contribution discussing the diachronic dimension of a variety, which, in the light of the plethora of such research on AAVE seems justified. In the other papers, historical dimensions are usually dealt with in a section on external language history. The AAVE focus is also seen in Mufwene’s paper on Gullah. The Caribbean morphosyntax papers present counterparts to papers included in the phonology section. These include Bahamian English (Reaser and Torbert), Jamaican Creole (Patrick), the Eastern-Caribbean (Michael Aceto), Trinidad and Tobago Creoles (James and Youssef) and Surinam Creoles (Winford and Migge), as well as Chicano English (Bayley and Santa Ana). As a Central American addendum, we find a paper of Belize English and other countries (Escure). A comparison of the Handbook and the textbook shows that a textbook version was anticipated from the outset of the project. The sections of the Handbook could be easily rearranged and the introductory texts adapted with minimal changes. The editors are to be commended for this foresight, as they put into the hands of instructors an invaluable resource at an extremely attractive price. The volume, as the entire set, attests to the persuasive powers of the Handbook editors, who managed to enlist many of the authorities in the field. Most major varieties are present and Inner Circle and Creoles are presented on an equal footing. There are very few major dialects missing, among them Barbadian Creole and Guyanese Creole, a fact the editor is well aware of. Other areas are not present because of a comparative lack of research, such as New England morphosyntax or Native American/First Nations Englishes.  C 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 282 Reviews A major aim of the project was to view the various varieties – world-wide – from a unifying perspective by looking at the structural features of both first language varieties and pidgins and creoles in one volume. The volume does this well by providing a bottom-up perspective of features for each variety and by providing diagnostic and non-diagnostic features of dialects via the ‘Interactive Maps’ and the regional synopses. In this respect, the inclusion of the global synopses would have been a welcome addition. To bring a project of this size to fruition and to make it accessible in an affordable format is a major feat for the discipline. Given such an accomplishment, criticism may appear beyond the point. The textbook, however, has a limited number of functions in the classroom. From a pedagogical point of view, the papers, which are all scholarly overviews, do not and cannot include the leisurely style and anecdotal information found in textbooks. The textbook, however, is perfect as a reference source to be used in class, and may be complemented with a thematic textbook on one’s area of theoretical focus, whether it be, for example, dialectology, English as a Lingua Franca, or the historical development of varieties. In phonology and phonetics, Wells (1982), which is still the authoritative text in the field, can be fruitfully illustrated with the audio samples. The editors used three types of bibliographies: one general list of major works (in the front of the book), a short list of references after each article in print, with a reference to a full bibliographic list on the CD-ROM. All one finds on the CD-ROM, however, is the general references from the book. The full bibliographic list (‘Complete References’) is glaringly missing. The specialist nature of the phonology section requires additional elaboration and explanation for non-specialist students, who need help with the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) diacritics for the narrow transcriptions used. Instructors are required to make explicit the link between the written symbol and the realization of a sound, for which no guidance is offered (for this purpose, Eric Armstrong’s interactive voice and speech site is priceless). Maps are not found frequently in the book, and the digital map section is only offered in the more expensive online version, not on the CD-ROM. Exercises and study questions, which are found at the end of the papers, differ somewhat in quality, but generally provide good starting points for discussion. There is no doubt that Varieties of English – Volume 2 is an indispensible resource that offers instructors and students invaluable guidance on English in North America and the Caribbean. The editors express their hope that the textbook “will be enjoyed, appreciated and esteemed by its readers” who are identified as “anyone interested in and fascinated by variation in English” (p. 7). The more a reader knows, the more one can enjoy this book. It is not a textbook in the conventional sense, as the narrative starts from scratch for each paper. For instructors of such courses, Varieties of English takes away many time-consuming tasks, such as the selection of a representative and balanced reading list for class discussion. This highly affordable version of a landmark publication of Englishes around the world is bound to become – and remain for many years – a standard in the classroom. REFERENCES Armstrong, Eric. (n.d.) Interactive voice and speech. Retrieved 14 April 2010 from http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/ Kortmann, Bernd, Burridge, Kate, Mesthrie, Rajend, Schneider, Edgar W., and Upton, Clive (eds). (2004) A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Mulitmedia Reference Tool. Vol. II: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.  C 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Reviews 283 Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend, and Upton, Clive (eds) (2004) A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Mulitmedia Reference Tool. Vol. I: Phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Wells, John C. (1982) Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Received 14 April 2010.) Linguistic Imperialism Continued. Robert Phillipson. New York and London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2009, vii+288 pp. Reviewed by ROBERT D. KING∗ Imagine that Noam Chomsky set out to write a book about English as the world language. I am thinking here not of Chomsky the Linguist, author of Syntactic Structures and Aspects of the Theory of Syntax—not Chomsky the towering presence in modern linguistics. No, the Chomsky I have in mind is Chomsky the gadfly, Chomsky the critic of society and the polity, Chomsky the virulent opponent of imperialism especially of imperialism he perceives as the American kind, Chomsky the hero of bien pensants in academia and among engagé and enragé intellectuals everywhere. Neither of the two Chomskys has so far as I know written much if anything that might be called ‘sociolinguistic’, but if Chomsky the gadfly had done so he would have produced something very much like this book, Linguistic Imperialism Continued (LIC) by Robert Phillipson. LIC is a collection of articles and book reviews by Phillipson published elsewhere which continue and expand the themes of his earlier book Linguistic Imperialism, published in 1992. Phillipson states in LIC (p. 12) that the five tenets explored in his first book were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. English is best taught monolingually. The ideal teacher of English is a native speaker. The earlier English is taught, the better the results. The more English is taught, the better the results. If other languages are used much, standards of English will drop. LIC goes well beyond these five topics, but they lurk in the background, and the way Phillipson treats these and other issues has not changed since 1992, nor has his conviction that he is right about everything. Most of us involved in world Englishes no doubt have opinions on the five claims above. I think one, three, and four are probably true, I do not believe two, and I have my doubts about five. It is a gloomy portent of Phillipson’s apodictic style that he repeats in LIC his 1992 claim that ‘each principle is absolutely false’ (p. 20). I draw attention to the ‘absolutely’: each principle is not merely ‘false’ but ‘absolutely false’. For him words like ‘probably’ and ‘possibly’ or ‘maybe’ might as well not exist in the English language. ‘Absolutely’ sets the tone. LIC has eight chapters. Its flavor is conveyed by titles such as: ch. 3 ‘Language policy and linguistic imperialism’; ch. 4 ‘Linguistic imperialism: a conspiracy, or a conspiracy of silence?’; ch. 5 ‘English, no longer a foreign language in Europe?’; ch. 7 ‘Lingua franca or lingua frankensteinia? English in European integration and globalisation’ (The lingua ∗ Department  C 2011 of Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: rking@mail.utexas.edu. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 284 Reviews frankensteinia is an amusing touch in an otherwise humorless narrative); and ch. 8 ‘English in higher education, panacea or pandemic?’ (I give him credit for concluding that English is not necessarily ‘either pandemic or panacea’ [p. 220]. So even-handed and reasonable a conclusion is not typical of LIC.) I don’t share Phillipson’s world-view, but I find a few things helpful in LIC. Useful information for the student of world Englishes is dotted here and there. The Charte européenne des langues régionales et minoritaires requires European Union countries to respect and nourish their minority and regional languages, and Welsh, Irish, Basque, Breton, and other languages have profited considerably from the EU status of the countries in which they are spoken. LIC’s ch. 7 (the lingua frankensteinia chapter), is useful in this regard and gives us interesting observations on what people such as the Swedes are doing to keep the snarling English mastiff from gobbling up their language. Other chapters have helpful sidebar comments on language surveys, TESL, language maintenance, language issues in the EU and elsewhere. Chapter 7 is followed by a selection of comments (from others) and a response (by Phillipson). Many of the commentators criticize Phillipson for his narrow ideological views about the politics of English (though more obliquely than I am doing here), and these reasonable comments are a useful balance to the rest of LIC. If you are not sympathetic to the thought-world of Phillipson, by chs. 2 or 3 you may find yourself afflicted as I was by a mental weariness, the result of a surfeit of imperialism, globalization, Marxist analysis, and irritation at Phillipson’s selective scholarship: the name ‘Kachru’, for example, is nowhere to be found in the Index or in the text so far as I can tell (except in one of the comments at the end of ch. 7 by Fatima Esseili, p. 184). The Inner Circle or any other Circle, no, you won’t find them here—which, since Phillipson cannot possibly be ignorant of Braj Kachru’s seminal conceptualization of world Englishes, means either that he doesn’t like Kachru’s work or more likely that it isn’t political enough for him. (The absence of a political agenda is one of many things I find most attractive in Braj Kachru’s writings.) Something else accompanies the weariness of which I spoke—the rising feeling, as one slogs through the pages of LIC, that for Phillipson the English language is like a nasty virus, a plague bacillus, a lackey of just about everything he hates: globalization, multinational corporations, Western values, America, McDonalds, capitalism . . . The list of things Phillipson hates is very long. One longs to read, after a few chapters of LIC prose, a few simple, non-ideological but true statements about the English language. I can supply some. English is the world language, like it or not. It is the international auxiliary language. That language may someday be Chinese; it isn’t now. When two people with the means to travel but sharing no language communicate, they will nine times out of ten perforce resort to English. English is the world language not because it is better than other languages for the purpose but because of the British Empire and a love affair of the rest of the world with American popular culture that began as far back as the 1930s (it started with jazz), and became huge post-World War II. Nobody forces the French to line up in the local McDonald’s at night to get their Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets and their Déluxe Potatoes (‘potatoes’ they choose to call their parboiled baked chunks of potato you can get as an alternative to ‘frites’—why doesn’t Phillipson go to war over that?). Nobody forces the French and Germans to prefer some disgusting American blockbuster film to the local product, nobody makes Indians drink Coca Cola.1 Nobody these days forces Navahos to  C 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd