The plethora of studies dealing with the quotative systems of English-as-native-language (ENL) varieties shows that the choice for be like is influenced by several linguistic and social factors. As for gender, most studies indicate that women are the prime users of be like. However, it is still unclear whether the same applies to English varieties that have emerged in countries with gender profiles differing from those found in ENL countries. This paper presents a case study of the quotative system of Ghanaian English based on a preliminary version of ICE-Ghana. The findings reveal that be like entered a quotative system that has been reshaped by language contact. Nonetheless, the new quotative still occupies a similar linguistic niche as that found in ENL varieties. Concerning social factors, the findings point towards a decreasing probability of be like with increasing age, but do not show a female lead. An intriguing interaction term between age and gender suggests that women in the sample are less likely to use be like the older they become compared to men. I argue that these patterns of genderlectal variation may be rooted in gender inequalities in international migration that were even stronger in the past.

Rooted in historical linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics is often concerned with diachrony as reflected in synchronic grammars. World Englishes (WEs), which emerge through particular sociohistorical factors (e.g. colonialization, language contact, mass migration, dialect mixing, etc.), provide an ideal window for examining questions that are central to this mission: the inheritance of shared features, ongoing evolutionary mechanisms, and pathways of innovation as dialects interact and settle within new local linguistic ecologies. These varieties thus extend our knowledge base concerning the underlying mechanisms of language variation and change. In so doing, they enable theoretical and empirical advances through application of the comparative method, exposing the interaction between external social forces and internal linguistic ones on linguist forms and functions. In this chapter, I review variationist research that targets multiple varieties, both in the Inner Circle and, where available, the Outer Circle, to outline the gains that are possible by harnessing the synergistic energies of WEs through a variationist lens.