Laurie Bauer is Professor of Linguistics at the Victoria University of Wellington. He is on the editorial board of the journal Word Structure.

• Preface; 1 BACKGROUND NOTIONS; 1.1 Accent, dialect, language and variety; 1.2 Home and colony; 1.3 Colonial lag; 1.4 Dialect mixing; 2 ENGLISH BECOMES A WORLD LANGUAGE; 2.1 The spread of English; 2.2 Models of English; 2.3 English in Scotland and Ireland; 3 VOCABULARY; 3.1 Borrowing; 3.2 Coining; 3.3 The results; 4 GRAMMAR; 4.1 Morphology; 4.2 Syntax; 5 SPELLING; 5.2 Lexical distributional differences; 5.2 Variation in the system; 6 PRONUNCIATION; 6.1 Describing varieties of English; 6.2 Input varieties; 6.3 Influences from contact languages; 6.4 Influences from other colonies; 6.5 Influences from later immigrants; 6.6 Influences from world English; 6.7 Differences between varieties; 7 THE REVENGE OF THE COLONISED; 7.1 Vocabulary; 7.2 Grammar; 7.3 Pronunciation; 8 BECOMING INDEPENDENT; 8.1 British Englishes; 8.2 North American Englishes; 8.3 Southern hemisphere Englishes; 8.4 Discussion; 8.5 The break-up of English?; 9 STANDARDS IN THE COLONIES; 9.1 Moving away from the standard in vocabulary; 9.2 Moving away from the standard in grammar; 9.3 Moving away from the standard in pronunciation; Discussion of the exercises; References; Index.

This new textbook is a welcome addition to the literature on international varieties of English and can definitely be recommended as an introductory guide for students who wish to study this varied and fascinating field.