BRAJ B. KACHRU, YAMUNA KACHRU, AND CECIL L. NELSON
One might understandably ask, “Why yet another resource volume?” when there is no paucity of reference works for the English language. Such publications are available, with varied orientations, in every genre – companions, encyclopedias, handbooks, and manuals – in almost every part of the English‐speaking world.
We had two motivations for initiating this handbook project: First, we thought it important to revisit the proliferation of terminologies and concepts articulating the global uses of Englishes (e.g. international, lingua franca, world English, global English) in the post‐1950s diffusion and cross‐cultural functions and identities of varieties of the language. It has been extensively – and insightfully – argued that all these concepts only partially represent the social, cultural, educational, and attitudinal realities of the presence of Englishes in their worldwide contexts. It is further rightly argued that the multiple and diverse functions of world Englishes in dynamic societies of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas demand theoretical and methodological perspectives that contextualize the varied and increasingly evolving cultural and social characteristics of the language. There is indeed greater emphasis today than in the past on capturing the expanding fusions and hybridizations of linguistic forms and the unprecedented variations in global functions of world Englishes. It is, we believe, appropriate to remind ourselves that the English language has a long history of convergence with and assimilation of other languages. What is new – and not necessarily recognized by all observers – is that the colonial and postcolonial eras opened challenging new doors for contacts with a great variety of distinct linguistic structures and cultures associated with Asian, African, and Native American languages.
Our second set of motivations involved the dynamic global profile of the language, which has drawn the attention of scholars in diverse areas. This interest is evident in studies related to cross‐cultural linguistic and literary creativity, language change and convergence, and world Englishes in education, especially in Asian and African contexts. Researchers in these areas will immediately think of that pioneering and insightful undertaking, The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), edited by Tom McArthur, which brought together selected scholars from all the circles of Englishes. Earlier efforts in this direction, though not with the same encyclopedic range of topics and contributions, include Bailey and Görlach (1982), Smith (1981, 1987), and B. Kachru (1982), to provide just a few examples.
In outlining and designing The Handbook of World Englishes, the editors, as expected in any such project, had to face the conflict between practical limitations and larger visions and dreams. This volume is, then, a compromise between an ambitious agenda and the accomplished reality. Our dilemma was very similar to the one that Tom McArthur faced in 1992 (vii):
Liberals would want to be fair to everyone, balancing every viewpoint and counter‐viewpoint, until from the point of view of conservatives everything cancelled out everything else.
We finally decided to follow the much‐talked‐about “middle path” (madhyama marga). The result is The Handbook of World Englishes in its present form.
In characterizing this handbook, it might be easier to say what it is actually not: it is not an encyclopedia, and it is not a volume of structural descriptions of world varieties of Englishes. A good example of such a work is Kortmann and Schneider (2005). Instead, The Handbook of World Englishes is a compendium of selected, thematically integrated topics that brings together multiple theoretical, contextual, and ideological perspectives that may include descriptions, but whose primary aim is to provide fresh interpretations of changing identities of users and uses of Englishes across the Three Circles. In this sense, then, we believe that The Handbook provides refreshing and, indeed, still hotly debated theoretical and functional constructs of world Englishes. In other words, it locates them in socially relevant and contextually appropriate situations. The contributors of regional profiles (Parts 1–3) were free to present their areas and varieties in terms of what they felt was important to emphasize, in order to provide historical, ideological, and ideational insights for the varieties under discussion.
In realizing our vision for The Handbook we are indebted, first, to our contributors, whose cooperation and patience made the volume possible. The editors, of course, bear the responsibility for any limitations of the work. We wish to express our deep gratitude to Larry Smith for his help at every step in the conceptualization of this volume; to Kingsley Bolton for his insight and suggestions; to Stanley Van Horn for his comments on and critique of various points; to Sarah Coleman of Blackwell Publishing for her professional editorial advice and smooth implementation of the editorial process; to Anna Oxbury for copyediting a complex volume with her usual patience and expertise; to Heeyoun Cho, Jamie S. Lee, Wooseung Lee, and Theera Ratitamkul for their assistance in multiple ways at various stages in the completion of the volume; and to the Research Board of the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign for their support. And finally, to our families, who not only tolerated our focusing our time and energies on this extensive and intensive project, often at their expense, but encouraged us at every step with their support and love.