Varieties of English – (M.A.)

The University of Essex is one of the UK's leading academic institutions, ranked ninth nationally for research excellence following the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

On our MA Varieties of English, you explore the variety that exists in English, both geographically and socially, as English is spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, as a first, second and additional language. We consider how English came to be spoken in many parts of the world, the structural (phonological, morphological, syntactic) differences between different varieties of English, and the relationship that this variation has to its speakers’ gender, ethnicity, regional origins and other social factors. We approach this diversity of English within the framework of variationist sociolinguistics, both theoretically and methodologically, equipping you with the skills to ask broader questions about the nature of language variation and change, as well as actually design and conduct research yourself on some aspect of variation in English. Our specialist options include: pidgin and Creole linguistics, sociophonology, and language and gender.