Article published in:
World Englishes: New theoretical and methodological considerations
Edited by Elena Seoane and Cristina Suárez-Gómez
[Varieties of English Around the World G57] 2016
► pp. 253–282

World Englishes on YouTube

Treasure trove or nightmare?

This article surveys and investigates the usefulness of video clips uploaded to the internet platform YouTube for the purposes of linguistic analysis, especially with respect to their representation of World Englishes. After characterizing YouTube itself and constraints which its nature imposes, I propose a typology of clips representing World Englishes. I distinguish “metalinguistic” and “natural” ones as well as various subtypes of each category, and discuss their respective properties. Subtypes are illustrated by describing select clips, and an overall assessment of the value of YouTube for linguistic purposes, and of constraints imposed, is offered.
Keywords: linguistic analysis, World Englishes, YouTube
Published online: 25 May 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g57.11sch
References
Bedijs, Kristina & Heyder, Karoline Henriette
(eds) 2012 Sprache und Personen im Web 2.0. Linguistische Perspektiven auf YouTube, SchülerVZ & Co. Münster: LIT.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan
2010 The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, Jean & Green, Joshua
2009 YouTube. Online Video and Participatory Culture. ­Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Crystal, David
2004 The Language Revolution. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Herzberg, Martin
2012 Musik und Aufmerksamkeit im Internet. Musiker im Wettstreit um Publikum bei YouTube, Facebook & Co. Marburg: Tectum.Google Scholar
Honeybone, Patrick & Watson, Kevin
2013 Salience and the sociolinguistics of Scouse spelling: exploring the phonology of the contemporary humorous localised dialect literature of Liverpool. English World-Wide 34(3): 305–340. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ives, Sumner
1971 A theory of literary dialect. In A Various Language. Perspectives on American Dialects, Juanita Williamson & Virginia M. Burke (eds), 145–177. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B
2005 Asian Englishes beyond the Canon. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B., Kachru, Yamuna & Nelson, Cecil
(eds) 2006 The Handbook of World Englishes. Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kachru, Yamuna & Nelson, Cecil L
2006 World Englishes in Asian Contexts. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Andy
(ed.) 2010 The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leimgruber, Jakob
2013 Singapore English. Structure, Variation and Usage. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Li, Charlene & Bernoff, Josh
2008 Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Boston MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina
2012[1997] English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mair, Christian
2013 The World System of Englishes: Accounting for the transnational importance of mobile and mediated vernaculars. English World-Wide 34: 253–278. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Marek, Roman
2013 Understanding YouTube. Über die Faszination eines Mediums. Bielefeld: transcript. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Meierkord, Christiane
2012 Interactions across Englishes. Linguistic Choices in Local and International Contact Situations. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend
2004 Synopsis: the phonology of English in Africa and South and Southeast Asia. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology, Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Meshtrie & Clive Upton (eds), 1099–1109. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend, & Bhatt, Rakesh
2008 World Englishes. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Kiri
2012 Playing Along. Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance. Oxford: OUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Posch, Anna
2013 Philippine English. Paper presented at the Hauptseminar World Englishes: YouTube as Evidence , University of Regensburg, Germany.
Preston, Dennis R
1989 Perceptual Dialectology: Nonlinguists’ Views of Areal Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W
1986 ‘How to Speak Southern?’ An American English dialect stereotyped. Amerikastudien/American Studies 31: 425–439.Google Scholar
2007 Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 English around the World: An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
2014a New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics of world Englishes. World Englishes 33: 9–32. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014b Asian Englishes – into the future: A bird’s eye view. Asian Englishes 16(3): 249–256. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. & Wagner, Christian
2006 The variability of literary dialect in Jamaican Creole: Thelwell’s The Harder They Come . Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 21: 45–95. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Snickars, Pelle & Vonderau, Patrick
(eds) 2009 The YouTube Reader. Stockholm: National Library of Sweden.Google Scholar
Tayo, Ma. Lourdes G
2004 Philippine English: phonology. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology, Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend ­Meshtrie & Clive Upton (eds), 1047–1059. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Wrobel, Emilia
2012 What you can find on YouTube, that’s sociolinguistically interesting? A look at the plural marking in the Virgin Islands Creole on St. Croix. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 27: 343–350. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Bagni, Marco & Zeenat Sumra
2022. Beyond monolithic English. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics Crossref logo
Buschfeld, Sarah, Alexander Kautzsch & Edgar W. Schneider
2018.  In Modeling World Englishes [Varieties of English Around the World, G61], ► pp. 15 ff. Crossref logo
Zähres, Frederic
2021.  In The Dynamics of English in Namibia [Varieties of English Around the World, G65], ► pp. 135 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 may 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.