Cover not available
Part of
Pluricentricity and Pluriareality: Dialects, Variation, and Standards
Edited by Philipp Meer and Ryan Durgasingh
[Studies in Language Variation 32] 2025
► pp. 90–117

Chapter 5
Pluricentricity versus pluriareality?

Areal patterns in the English-speaking world

ORCID logo | University of Regensburg, Germany | National University of Singapore, Singapore
This paper investigates the issue of what data from the English-speaking world can contribute to the ongoing debate on the notions of “pluricentricity” versus “pluriareality” — and to the interpretation of English(es) as pluricentric or pluriareal, respectively. After brief definitions and discussions of the core notions, areal distributions in the English-speaking world — which can be viewed as evidence for either perspective — are systematically screened and exemplified. This includes differences between national varieties of English and evidence for “epicentric” linguistic influences on the one hand, and areal distributions on local, regional, supra-national, and global scales on the other. I conclude that both notions do not exclude each other; rather, each captures and highlights different aspects of reality. “Pluriareality” describes language production, while “pluricentricity” focuses on perception.
Keywords: epicenter, language perception, language production, national varieties, pluriareality, pluricentricity, regional dialects, Southern American English, World Englishes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pluricentricity versus pluriareality: Competing notions
    • 2.1“Pluricentricity” — an ambiguous notion
    • 2.2“Pluriareality” — A controversial notion
    • 2.3Testing and assessment strategies
  • 3.Evidence for pluricentricity
    • 3.1National varieties
      • 3.1.1British English versus American English
      • 3.1.2National varieties on a global scale
    • 3.2Epicentric influences
    • 3.3Intermediate summary — Pluricentricity: National varieties and putative epicenters
  • 4.Evidence for pluriareality: Non-national patterns
    • 4.1Areality: The local scale
    • 4.2Areality: The regional scale
    • 4.3Areality: The transnational scale
    • 4.4Areality: The transnational and global scale
    • 4.5Areality in perception: Perceptual Dialectology
    • 4.6Intermediate summary — pluriareality
  • 5.Pluricentricity or pluriareality? Weighing the arguments and evidence
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (73)
References
Algeo, John. 1989. Queuing and other idiosyncracies. World Englishes 8. 157–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. British or American English? A handbook of word and grammar patterns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alleyne, Mervyn C. 1980. Comparative Afro-American. An historical-comparative study of English-based Afro-American dialects of the new world. Ann Arbor: Karoma.Google Scholar
Ammon, Ulrich (ed.). 1989. Towards a descriptive framework for the status / function / social position of a language within a country. Status and function of language and language varieties, 21–106. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bernaisch, Tobias & Pam Peters (eds.). 2022. Linguistic epicentres in World Englishes. Special Issue of World Englishes 41(3).Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas & Randi Reppen. 2015. The Cambridge handbook of English corpus linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bohmann, Axel. 2019. Variation in English world-wide: Registers and global varieties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha & Andy Kirkpatrick (eds.). 2020. The handbook of Asian Englishes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah & Alexander Kautzsch (eds.). 2020. Modelling world Englishes: A joint approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederic G. et al. 1985–2013. Dictionary of American regional English. 6 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael (ed.). 1992. Pluricentric languages: Introduction. Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations, 1–10. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
(ed.). 1992. Pluricentric languages. Differing norms in different nations. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Collins, Peter. 2015. Grammatical change in English world-wide. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dollinger, Stefan. 2019a. The pluricentricity debate: On parallels, differences and distortions in German versus English and other languages. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019b. Debunking “pluri-areality”: On the pluricentric perspective of national varieties. Journal of Linguistic Geography 7(2). 98–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elspaß, Stephan, Christa Dürscheid & Arne Ziegler. 2017. Zur grammatischen Pluriarealität der deutschen Gebrauchsstandards — oder: Über die Grenzen des Plurizentrizitätsbegriffs. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 136. 69–91.Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th. & Tobias Bernaisch. 2016. Exploring epicentres empirically: Focus on South Asian Englishes. English World-Wide 37. 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hedevind, Bertil. 1967. The dialect of Dentdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Upsala: Appelberg.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Sebastian, Marianne Hundt and Joybrato Mukherjee. 2011. Indian English — an emerging epicentre? A pilot study on light-verbs in web-derived corpora of South Asian Englishes. Anglia 128. 258–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne. 2013. The diversification of English: Old, New and Emerging Epicentres. In Daniel Schreier & Marianne Hundt (eds.), English as a contact language, 182–203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. On models and modelling. World Englishes (Early View). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne, & Ulrike Gut. 2012. Mapping unity and diversity world-wide. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hutcheson, Neal & Walt Wolfram. 2006. Voices of North Carolina. DVD. Raleigh, NC: The Language and Life Project, [URL]. (21 Feb., 2024.)
Kachru, Braj B. (ed.). 1992. The other tongue: English across cultures. 2nd edn. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Andy. 2010. English as a lingua franca in ASEAN. A multilingual model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Andy & Wang Lixun. 2020. Is English an Asian language? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kloss, Heinz. 1978. Die Entwicklung neuer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800, 2nd edn. Düsseldorf: Schwann.Google Scholar
König, Werner. dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache. München: dtv.
Kortmann, Bernd, & Edgar W. Schneider. 2004. Varieties of English. CD-ROM: A multimedia reference tool. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. [URL]
Kortmann, Bernd & Kerstin Lunkenheimer (eds.). 2012. The Mouton world atlas of variation in English. Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd, Kerstin Lunkenheimer & Katharina Ehret (eds.). 2020. The electronic world atlas of varieties of English. Zenodo. DOI logo. [URL]. (9 August, 2021.)
Kretzschmar, William R. 2004. Standard American English pronunciation. In Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie & Clive Upton (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology, 257–269. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lange, Claudia. 2020. English in South Asia. In Daniel Schreier, Marianne Hundt & Edgar W. Schneider (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of world Englishes, 236–262. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leitner, Gerhard. 1992. English as a pluricentric language. In Michael Clyne (ed.), Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations, 179–237. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
. 2010. Developmental stages in the formation of epicentres of English. In Oriana Palusci (ed.) English, but not quite: Locating linguistic diversity, 17–36. Trento: Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche.Google Scholar
Meierkord, Christiane. 2012. Interactions across Englishes. Linguistic choices in local and international contact situations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meierkord, Christiane & Edgar W. Schneider (eds.). 2020. World Englishes at the grassroots. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Mittmann, Brigitta. 2004. Mehrwort-Cluster in der englischen Alltagskonversation. Unterschiede zwischen britischem und amerikanischem gesprochenem Englisch als Indikatoren für den präfabrizierten Charakter der Sprache. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Muhr, Rudolf. 2020. Pluriareality in sociolinguistics: A comprehensive overview of key ideas and a critique of linguistic data used. In Rudolf Muhr & Juan Thomas (eds.) Pluricentricity theory beyond dominance and non-dominance, 9–78. Graz, Berlin: PLC Press.Google Scholar
Muhr, Rudolf & Benjamin Meisnitzer (eds.). 2018. Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide. Berlin, Berne: Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagle, Stephen & Sara Sanders. 2003. English in the Southern United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nickerson, Raymond S. 2010. Inference: deductive and inductive. In Neil J. Salkind (ed.), Encyclopedia of research design, vol. 2, 593–596. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Niehaus, Konstantin. 2015. Areale Variation in der Syntax des Standarddeutschen: Ergebnisse zum Sprachgebrauch und zur Frage Plurizentrik vs. Pluriarealität. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 82(2). 133–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair. 2007. Global Englishes and transcultural flows. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Peters, Pam. 2009. Australian English as a regional epicentre. In Thomas Hoffmann & Lucia Siebers (eds.), World Englishes — Problems, properties and prospects, 107–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis. 1989. Perceptual dialectology. Nonlinguists’ views of areal linguistics. Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1996. Where the worst English is spoken. In Edgar W. Schneider (ed.), Focus on the USA, 297–360. (VEAW G16) Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Peter A. 1988. West Indians and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rohdenburg, Günter, & Julia Schlüter. 2009. One language, two grammars? Differences between British and American English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scheuringer, Hermann. 1996. Das Deutsche als pluriareale Sprache: ein Beitrag gegen staatlich begrenzte Horizonte in der Diskussion um die deutsche Sprache in Österreich. Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German 29(2). 147–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. 1986. ‘How to Speak Southern’ — An American English dialect stereotyped. Amerikastudien / American Studies, 425–439.Google Scholar
2007. Postcolonial English. Varieties around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011a. The pluricentricity of English: Centrifugal forces. In Augusto Soares da Silva, Amadeu Torres & Miguel Goncalves (eds.), Línguas Pluricêntricas. Variação Linguística e Dimensões Sociocognitivas. Pluricentric languages. Linguistic variation and sociocognitive dimensions, 109–124. Braga: Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia Universidade Católica Portuguesa.Google Scholar
2011b. The subjunctive in Philippine English. In Maria Lourdes Bautista (ed.), Studies in Philippine English, 159–173. Manila: Anvil.Google Scholar
2013. The pluricentricity of English today — and how about non-dominant varieties? In Rudolf Muhr, Carla Amorós Negre, Carmen Fernández Juncal, Klaus Zimmermann Emilio Prieto und Natividad Hernández (eds.), Exploring linguistic standards in non-dominant varieties of pluricentric languages / Explorando estándares lingüísticos en variedades no dominantes de lenguas pluricéntricas, 45–54. Frankfurt, Wien: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2014a. Global diffusion, regional attraction, local roots? Sociocognitive perspectives on the pluricentricity of English. In Augusto Soares da Silva (ed.), Pluricentricity. language variation and sociocognitive dimensions, 191–226. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2014b. Asian Englishes — into the future: a bird’s eye view. Asian Englishes 16. 1–8. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018. The interface between cultures and corpora: Tracing reflections and manifestations. ICAME Journal 42. 25–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020. English around the world. An introduction, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2022. Parameters of epicentral status. World Englishes 41. 462–474. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W., Bernd Kortmann, Kate Burridge, Rajend Mesthrie, & Clive Upton, (eds.). 2004. A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. I: Phonology. Vol. 2: Morphology and syntax. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Schreier, Daniel, Marianne Hundt & Edgar W. Schneider (eds.). 2020. The Cambridge handbook of world Englishes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seargeant, Philip and Caroline Tagg. 2011. English on the internet and a ‘post-varieties’ approach to language. World Englishes 30(4). 496–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steger, Maria & Edgar W. Schneider. 2012. Complexity as a function of iconicity: The case of complement clause constructions in New Englishes. In Bernd Kortmann & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi (eds.), Linguistic complexity: Second language acquisition, indigenization, contact, 156–191. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strevens, Peter. 1971. British and American English. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tottie, Gunnel. 2002. An introduction to American English. Malden, MA, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1974. Sociolinguistics. An introduction to language and society. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
(ed.). 2002. The sociolinguistics of modern RP. Sociolinguistic Variation and Change, 171–180. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Velupillai, Viveka. 2012. An introduction to linguistic typology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling-Estes. 1997. Hoi toide on the Outer Banks. The story of the Ocracoke Brogue. Chapel Hill, NC, London: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar