Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary

Series editor’s preface

Series editor’s preface This volume on Philippine English is an important addition to the Asian Englishes Today series, not least because the Philippines is numerically one of the most important English-using societies in Asia. At various times over recent decades, the claim has been made that the Philippines was the world’s ‘thirdlargest ’ English-using society in the world, with some sixty percent of its eightyodd million population claiming a facility in the language. Given the negotiable nature of such claims, as well as recent spread of English in such societies as India and China, such generalizations are easily challenged, but, despite this, there is little doubt that the Philippines is one of the most significant and most interesting English-using societies in Asia, a society where, for a number of decades, there has been a general awareness and recognition of a localized variety of English characterized by its own distinct lexicon, accent, and variations in grammar. The distinctiveness of Philippine English as a linguistic variety has been paralleled by the literary creativity of its novelists, short story writers, and poets, who have produced — and continue to produce — a substantial body of writing in English, aimed not only at domestic readers but also at the international audience for world literature in English. The volume is composed of four parts. Part I deals with the sociolinguistic context with contributions from Philippine scholars drawn from such fields as anthropology, education, linguistics, and literary studies. Part II focuses on linguistic description, including not only the description of the features of Philippine English, but also the description of English in contact with indigenous Philippine languages, as well as the English in the context of international call centers based in the national capital Manila. Part III deals with the literary creativity of Philippine writers in English, with chapters on colonial education, postcolonialism and nationalism, poetry, short fiction, the novel, regional writers and diasporic Philippine literature. Here, we have been particularly fortunate in attracting a number of contributors who are not only astute commentators on the literary scene, but also celebrated creative writers themselves. Part IV comprises a research bibliography of considerable value to scholars in the field. For all these reasons, I believe that this volume makes a very important contribution to the Asian Englishes Today series. As with a number of other volumes in this series, the study of English in the Philippines is not simply about the study of an Asian variety of the English language, but also provides insights into many other issues, including colonial and postcolonial languages and literatures, languages in contact, language and education, intercultural communication, and English literature worldwide. Kingsley Bolton July 2008 xii Series editor’s preface ...