Language and Region: provides an accessible guide to regional variation in English covers topical issues including loss of regional diversity and attitudes to regional accents and dialects examines the use of dialect in media, advertising and the tourist industry outlines the main linguistic charac[...]

This bestselling text by Charles Barber, with updating contributions from Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw, recounts the history of the English language from its remote ancestry to the present day. Using dozens of familiar texts, including the English of King Alfred, Shakespeare and Chaucer, the Engl[...]

A description of regional varieties of British English, along with discussion of current research in dialectology/ variationist sociolinguistics.[...]