This new edition of David Crystal’s classic book is the definitive survey of English in all its global variations as it is read, written and spoken at the beginning of the new millennium. Despite the astonishingly widespread use of English, each individual speaker makes it their own. Whenever we write or speak we give away a great deal about ourselves by our choices in pronunciation, dialect, vocabulary and grammar. This fascinating book explores the way the language has developed, and examines the factors that unify it and the variations that divide it both nationwide and worldwide.