Varieties of English arose during the colonial period (roughly 1600-1900) at a number of different overseas locations. The specific situations of dialect contact and mixture and the sociolinguistic scenarios which obtained at these locations were instrumental in the variety profiles which resulted. Contact between dialects happened because of the different sources of emigrants to key locations such as Canada or New Zealand and from the status of these groups in the British colonies where they settled. In recent decades there have been several studies of how the varieties, which can now be observed in the modern Anglophone countries throughout the world, achieved the profiles they show. These studies throw light on the nature of language contact and the outcomes it engenders.

Since the introduction of democratic majority rule in the 1990s there has been major change in South African society. This change has affected language as well, with English expanding its role in the public domain and as a lingua franca in large parts of the country. Nonetheless, the other European-heritage language, Afrikaans, weighs in with more first-language speakers than English and is represented natively across different ethnicities. The black section of the population has also been experiencing language change with its greatly increased role in public and official life. New, emergent varieties, spoken especially by young black people, have enriched the linguistic landscape of South Africa and contributed significantly to its dynamism.