Consonant Change in English Worldwide: Synchrony Meets Diachrony

In a sense, this book comes to the defence of consonantal change in English. A central argument is that there is more to the synchronic and diachronic development of English consonants than has traditionally been assumed, so that analyses of this feature certainly contribute to the understanding of how English evolved, why it took this particular developmental trajectory and, as an outlook, which developments it is likely to undergo as a result of ongoing diversification into a plethora of regional varieties.