The Lexicography of Asian Englishes

This chapter presents an overview of the lexicographical resources for the majority of Asian English varieties. It brings together details of all the available lexicons of the Englishes in the Asian region, dealing first with colonial-era lexicons before assessing dictionaries as are available for contemporary varieties of Asian English. The chapter discusses the history and development of Asian English dictionaries in pre-nineteenth century, nineteenth century, and early twentieth century. An important component of Asian Englishes is lexis borrowed from indigenous languages. Such borrowings raise the question of when a term or expression should be considered naturalized into English. The chapter provides summaries for all modern dictionaries known for the various varieties of Asian English. It treats dictionaries covering multiple varieties of English: Encarta World English Dictionary, The Grolier International Dictionary, Lonely Planet travel guides, The Oxford English Dictionary, and Green's Dictionary of Slang online.