Clues to language change from non-standard English

Colloquial speech has a different grammar from written English, and published descriptions of English are largely based on the written form; therefore the grammatical consensus may be missing important facts about everyday English. Non-standard language often prefigures changes which spread eventually into the standard; sometimes it preserves forms lost elsewhere. Linguistic change in standard English can sometimes be detected by looking at different forms of non-standard English, or by comparison of different national standards. These useful windows on the standard language are illustrated with examples from unplanned speech, internet data, and British and American usage. © The author 2008.