This chapter looks at the spread of English to countries of the Southern Hemisphere, notably Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These “Southern Hemisphere Englishes” (including the islands of Tristan da Cunha and the Falklands in the South Atlantic) have been found to have a lot in common both historically and linguistically: similar settlement periods (the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) and strategies (typically large-scale, organized settlement moves of lower- and middle-class people from the British Isles, mainly southern and south-eastern England). Their descendants today constitute large native-speaking communities of direct British ancestry. They faced similar situations – unfamiliar territory and climate and, most importantly, the need to deal and communicate with earlier residents of the areas they migrated to. In the long run, these peoples – Aboriginals in Australia; Maoris in New Zealand; Africans, Afrikaners, and later also Indians in South Africa – have adopted and transformed English, using it for their own purposes, and many of them have shifted to it, thus producing new ethnic varieties like Aboriginal English or Maori English. Cast studies and language samples focus on Australian English (including a discussion of pronunciation features in a "footie" sports program) and South African varieties of English.

This chapter is an introduction to language and linguistic concepts from the viewpoints of North America. It sets the historical stage for the development of Canadian English from about 1900 to the present. Couched in the ascension of English as the predominant world language, the chapter sketches the influences on Canadian English via immigration and language and dialect contact throughout history. It introduces the six protagonists of the book, the "Big Six", who, shortly after World War II, embarked on a campaign to define, codify, and create the notion of Canadian English as a variety on a par with American and British English. Special emphasis is given to changing linguistic attitudes towards the English used in Canada, from the 1850s to the present. Basic concepts from the fields of dialectology, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and World Englishes are explained and illustrated for the non-specialist reader.