DOI: tba
This dataset comprises extensive socio-demographic information for 72 spontaneous spoken varieties of English spoken world-wide. In total, DOVE comprises information on 16 extra-linguistic triggers (aka socio-demographic information) which can be broadly assigned to the categories geography, language contact/isolation, socio-history and demography.
DOVE was compiled as part of the project Extra-linguistic triggers of Morphosyntactic Variation in Englishes (MoVE) and was designed for studying the relationship between extra-linguistic triggers and morphosyntactic variation in spontaneous spoken English varieties, with a focus on language complexity. DOVE builds on and complements the information contained in the electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English (eWAVE), the currently largest database of morphosyntactic features in Englishes (Kortmann et al. 2020).
Table 1: Overview of extra-linguistic triggers by category. Numbers provided in parentheses for each operationalised parameter refer to the section number in the documentation of sources.
| Category/construct | Operationalised parameter | Brief description | Variable name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geography | Geographic spread (1) | Country size in km²; if applicable territory, region or land area for islands | spread |
| Coordinates (2) | Longitude and latitude WGS84 of the sociolinguistic centre/administrative centre/capital | longitude, latitude | |
| Region (3) | World region and micro region | region, region_micro | |
| Contact | Proportion of non-native speakers (4) | Calculated as the percentage of non-native speakers in relation to population size | prop_non-natives |
| Number of contact languages (5) | Languages spoken by at least 10% of the population of the respective country/territory; all L1 languages spoken in a country/territoty | contact_languages; all_L1 | |
| Number of source languages (6) | The contributing source language (only for pidgins and creoles), if known | source_languages | |
| Official bilingualism/multilingualism (7) | Are two or more languages listed as official language(s)? | bilingualism (yes/no) | |
| Socio-historical background | Variety type (8) | Variety type as listed in eWAVE 3.0 | language_type |
| Society/demography | Number of native speakers (9) | Number of native speakers per national territory/variety | natives |
| Number of non-native speakers (10) | Number of non- native speakers per national territory/variety | non-natives | |
| Population size/Speech community (11) | Number of native and non-native speakers in a given territory/country | population | |
| Status as official language (12) | Is English an official language? | official (yes/no) | |
| Percentage of literacy (13) | Percentage of adult literacy 15+ both sexes | literacy, literacy_rounded | |
| Education (14) | Mean years of schooling | education | |
| Percentage of urban population (15) | Percentage of urban population | urban_pop | |
| GNI (16) | Gross national income per capita (GNI) | GNI |
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📁 data
- languages_DOVE1.0_DDMonthYY.csv -- a spreadsheet containing socio-demographic information for 71 varieties of English and additional descriptive information such as variety name or abbreviation.
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📁 documentation
- geography.pdf -- definitions, description and detailed documentation of sources for geographic triggers.
- contact.pdf -- definitions, description and detailed documentation of sources for triggers of language contact.
- demography.pdf -- definitions, description and detailed documentation of sources for demographic and socio-historical triggers.
- additional.pdf -- documentation of coding and sources for additional descriptive information.
- appendix.pdf -- detailed description of how English varieties in Suriname and French Guinea have been guesstimated.
DOVE v1.0 is currently not openly accessible but access may be granted upon request. The full dataset will be made publicly available in December 2026.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ehret, Katharina. 2024. DOVE - A socio-demographic Dataset fOr Varieties of English (v1.0). Zenodo. DOI: tba
As part of project MoVE, DOVE was generously funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Cologne, Germany, through Support of projects (grant no. 20.23.0.009SL).
Many thanks also go to my colleagues, all experts in one or more of the varieties comprised in this dataset for providing missing information on socio-demographic variables, helfpul suggestions and references to other sources (in alphabetical order):
Robert Bailey, Laurie Bauer, Tobias Bernaisch, Ariane Macalinga Borlongan, Alfred Buregeya, David Britain, Sandra Clarke, Dagmar Deuber, Michael Ellis, Sabine Erhart, Sandra Evans, Nick Faraclas, Markku Filppula, Hans Fonka, Stephanie Hackert, Raymond Hickey, Magnus Huber, Jakob Leimgruber, Robert Mailhammer, Christian Mair, Miriam Meyerhoff, Michael Meyler, Bettina Migge, Salikoko Mufwene, Peter Mühlhäusler, Daniel Nkemleke, Stefanie Pillai, Raymond Oenbring, Heidi Quinn, Anna Rosen, Jeffrey Reaser, Mark Sebba, Jeff Siegel, Kingsley Ugwuanyi