Peter Trudgill is Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of East Anglia, Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Professor of English Linguistics at Agder University College, Norway.

Trudgill's book is as engaging and readable as we have come to expect from him. It would be well suited for use as a general textbook and should certainly be on the reading list for any undergraduate or (post-)graduate course dealing with language contact.

• Preface; 1. Colonial dialects as mixed dialects; 2. Colonial lag and Southern Hemisphere evidence for 19th-century British English; 3. Rudimentary levelling and interdialect development; 4. Variability and apparent levelling; 5. Determinism in new-dialect formation; 6. Drift: parallel developments in the Southern Hemisphere Englishes; 7. Determinism and social factors.

Peter Trudgill is Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of East Anglia, Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Professor of English Linguistics at Agder University College, Norway.

Trudgill's book is as engaging and readable as we have come to expect from him. It would be well suited for use as a general textbook and should certainly be on the reading list for any undergraduate or (post-)graduate course dealing with language contact.

• Preface; 1. Colonial dialects as mixed dialects; 2. Colonial lag and Southern Hemisphere evidence for 19th-century British English; 3. Rudimentary levelling and interdialect development; 4. Variability and apparent levelling; 5. Determinism in new-dialect formation; 6. Drift: parallel developments in the Southern Hemisphere Englishes; 7. Determinism and social factors.

Peter Trudgill is Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of East Anglia, Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Professor of English Linguistics at Agder University College, Norway.

Trudgill's book is as engaging and readable as we have come to expect from him. It would be well suited for use as a general textbook and should certainly be on the reading list for any undergraduate or (post-)graduate course dealing with language contact.

• Preface; 1. Colonial dialects as mixed dialects; 2. Colonial lag and Southern Hemisphere evidence for 19th-century British English; 3. Rudimentary levelling and interdialect development; 4. Variability and apparent levelling; 5. Determinism in new-dialect formation; 6. Drift: parallel developments in the Southern Hemisphere Englishes; 7. Determinism and social factors.