37.1164, FYI: Call for Book Chapters - Englishes in Norway: Everyday Realities

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1164. Fri Mar 20 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1164, FYI: Call for Book Chapters - Englishes in Norway: Everyday Realities

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Date: 20-Mar-2026
From: Susanne Mohr [susanne.mohr at ntnu.no]
Subject: Call for Book Chapters - Englishes in Norway: Everyday Realities


English has become a pervasive feature of everyday life in Norway,
where it functions across a wide range of domains, including
education, media, digital communication, commerce, and public space.
Norwegians rank among the most proficient speakers of English
worldwide. The country consistently scores high on the EF English
Proficiency Index, a global statistic on English language skills in
countries where it is not the first language of the majority of the
population. In 2025, Norway ranked 5th out of 123 (English First
2025). This has called into question the status of English in Norway
as a foreign language, despite the fact that it does not have official
status in any public domain. However, it is used widely, often as
lingua franca, in (higher) education, the workplace, popular and
social media (e.g., Bull & Swan 2009; Språkrådet & TNS Gallup 2015;
Mæhlum 2020; Svendsen 2021; Greenall 2025), by youths and
immigrants/refugees (e.g., Dahl et al. 2018; Hiss 2024; Pietikäinen &
Gühr 2024), among others. Importantly, English has been reported not
to feel like a foreign language anymore (e.g., Rindal 2010, 2013).
Despite Norway’s reputation for high levels of English proficiency,
there does not exist a dedicated overview and analysis of the forms,
functions and attitudes towards English in Norway. The growing body of
postgraduate research (e.g., Rindal 2013; Huang 2020; Duklæt 2021;
Teichroeb 2022) signals both the vitality of the field and the need
for a collected volume that would benefit both academics and students.
Furthermore, the sociolinguistic dynamics of English use in the
country remain relatively underexplored within the framework of World
Englishes. The proposed volume aims to provide such an analysis.
Ultimately, its goal is to answer the question as to how English in
its different forms and uses in Norway fits into current World
Englishes theory and models (e.g., Kachru 1988; Schneider 2003;
Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2017) – or whether these models need to be
reconsidered to account for contemporary forms and uses of English in
a globalized world, in countries such as Norway.
We invite contributions that discuss English in Norway today,
including but not limited to:
1. Forms
-       Phonetic and phonological features
-       Morphological, morphosyntactic and syntactic features
-       Lexical and semantic features, including English loanwords in
Norwegian
-       Analyses of pragmatic features, including pragmatic borrowing
-       Sociolinguistic variation in Englishes across Norway
2. Functions and uses
-       According to domains, such as (higher) education, popular
culture, social media
-       According to communities of practice, such as youths,
migrants, gaming communities
-       Acquisitional trajectories in formal and informal settings,
including grassroots exposure
-       The visual presence of English in urban centres, rural spaces,
and transnational cyberspace
3. Attitudes towards different uses and forms of English
4. English in its multilingual language ecology, i.e., English in
contact with other languages, including code-switching and other
hybrid linguistic practices
We welcome contributions based on different types of data (corpora,
interviews, semiotic landscapes, etc.) and applying different
theoretical approaches. However, all contributions must speak to the
World Englishes/variational linguistic paradigm of the book series the
volume will be placed in.
Abstracts should be ca. 500 words in length, excluding references.
The deadline for abstracts is 20 June 2026.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 31 August 2026.
Full chapters are due on 31 March 2027.
Questions can be addressed to the editors: susanne.mohr at ntnu.no and
yolandi.ribbens-klein at ntnu.no
References:
Bull, T. & T. Swan (2009) Engelsk i Norge og engelsk i norsk. In T.
Bull & A.-R. Lindgren (eds.) De mange språk i Norge: Flerspråklighet
på norsk, 211– 241. Novus.
Buschfeld, S. & A. Kautzsch (2017) Towards an integrated approach to
postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes 36(1),
104-126.
Dahl, A., A. Krulatz & E. N. Torgersen (2018) The role of English as a
foreign language in educating refugees in Norway. In S. Shapiro, R.
Farrelly & M. J. Curry (eds.) Educating refugee-background students.
Critical issues and dynamic contexts, 107-122. Multilingual Matters.
Duklæt, T. (2021). Indexicality, identity, and authenticity in
Norwegian hip-hop code-switching. NTNU Master’s thesis.
English First (2025) EF English Proficiency Index. A Ranking of 123
Countries and Regions by English Skills. Available online:
https://www.ef.com/assetscdn/WIBIwq6RdJvcD9bc8RMd/cefcom-epi-site/reports/2025/ef-epi-2025-english.pdf,
last accessed 02 March 2026.
Greenall, A. K. (2025) Norsk reality og teksterens virkelighet.
Anglisismer, intralingvale og interlingvale oversettelser i NRK og
TV2. Nordisk tidsskrift for oversettelses- og tolkeforskning 1(2),
91-110.
Hiss, F. (2024) English in Norway’s multilingual north. A rhizomatic
view on encounters with historical and transnational diversity. In E.
Peterson & K. B. Fägersten (eds.) English in the Nordic countries.
Connections, tensions and everyday realities, 165-184. Routledge.
Huang, T. (2020) Tonal accents realization in Norwegian speakers’
English production. The Arctic University of Norway dissertation.
Kachru, B. B. (1988) The sacred cows of English. English Today 4(4),
3-8.
Mæhlum, Brit. 2020. Konfrontasjoner: Når språk møtes (2nd ed.) Novus.
Pietikäinen, K. & L. Gühr (2024) English in Nordic multilingual
families. In E. Peterson & K. B. Fägersten (eds.) English in the
Nordic countries. Connections, tensions and everyday realities,
204-226. Routledge.
Rindal, U. (2010) Constructing identity with L2: Pronunciation and
attitudes among Norwegian learners of English. Journal of
Sociolinguistics 14(2), 240-261.
Rindal, U. (2013) Meaning in English: L2 attitudes, choices and
pronunciation in Norway. University of Oslo dissertation.
Schneider, E. W. (2003) The dynamics of New Englishes: From identity
construction to dialect birth. Language 79(2), 233-281.
Språkrådet & TNS Gallup (2015) Bruk av engelsk i norske bedrifter.
Oslo: Språkrådet.
Svendsen, B. A. (2021) Flerspråklighet. Til begeistring og besvær.
Gyldendal akademisk.
Teichroeb, E. A. (2022) Norwegian Attitudes Toward Nonnative English
Speakers and Accents. NTNU Master’s thesis.

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)




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