Introduction: Englishes of the Caribbean

Abstract

The English‐official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developmental processes, world Englishes theorizing, and mapping Englishes in multivarietal communities. While there has been an upsurge of linguistic research on the region, especially on emerging standardized varieties, little systematic empirical research exists on smaller Caribbean islands, select domain‐specific patterns of production and perception in larger territories, and regional issues of standardization. This special issue addresses current research gaps and provides a well‐rounded picture of language production and perception research in the anglophone Caribbean. The issue consists of articles with a variety of different methodological approaches, including corpus‐linguistic, sociolinguistic, acoustic phonetic, ethnographic, and language attitudinal investigations. It covers a wide range of smaller (Bequia, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts) and larger territories (the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, and Trinidad). While the articles scrutinize the anglophone Caribbean, several of the issues raised have relevance for world Englishes research more generally.