The Devil S Darning Needle

Each one of this collection's poignant, finely crafted stories, which in character and setting are often reminiscent of the works of Alice Munro, introduces ordinary people confronting their personal, but not uncommon demons.

Myths have long held that darning needles are nothing more than the devil's own mouthpieces. In exchange for being transformed from dull, gray, wingless grub bodies into beautiful winged dragons, they carry the Devil's evil whispers to the ears of men, women, and little children everywhere. Nigel is the largest, strongest, and brightest blue dragonfly ever to emerge from the water and the first to break this pact. He defies the Devil's minions and refuses to play his part, but can a simple, single darning needle hope to stand against ol' Scratch himself and change the fate of all his kind?

This two-part volume provides a collection of 27 linguistic studies and contributions that shed light on the evolution of different Englishes world-wide (varieties, learner Englishes, dialects, creoles) from a broad spectrum of different perspectives, including both synchronic and diachronic approaches. What makes the volume unique is that it is the first-ever contribution to the field which includes a section exclusively commited towards testing, discussing and refining Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model against recent realities of English world-wide (Part 1). These realities include a wide variety of case studies ranging from regions (socio)linguistically as diverse as South Africa, the Phillipines, Cyprus or Germany. Part 2 goes beyond the Dynamic Model and offers both empirical and theoretical perspectives on the evolution of World Englishes. In doing so, it provides contributions with a theoretical focus on the topic as well as cross-varietal accounts; it sheds light on individual Englishes from different geographical regions and offers new perspectives on “old” varieties.