PD Dr. Sven Leuckert

Recent publications

"Colloquial Portuguese for English health tourists: a sociolinguistic investigation of a 19th-century Portuguese–English language guidebook" (with Theresa Neumaier)

Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics (early view, 2026)

• In this article, we explore how Alexander J. D. D'Orsey, a British health tourist to Madeira, tried to explain important Portuguese words and phrases to other British visitors in his 'vademecum' penned and published in the Late Modern period. This handy book was meant to be used as a quick reference but, as we show, still contains several prescriptive elements. Importantly, we frame the text as a kind of 'specialised register' that needs to be considered not only with regard to its linguistic content, but also with regard to contextual factors such as intended audience, authorship, time period, and featured topics.

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"The Indian English complaint tradition: ‘Old chestnuts’ and new perspectives" (with Claudia Lange)

World Englishes (early view, 2026)

• This article revisits the 'Indian English complaint tradition' first by summarising past instances of the complaint tradition (i.e., 'old chestnuts') before presenting and discussing responses to the question of what annoyed Indian participants of a questionnaire about aspects of English usage (i.e., 'new perspectives'). The article showcases not only the changing forms of prescriptivist attitudes, but also complements previous knowledge about the role of the complaint tradition in World Englishes modelling.

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"Mountaineering English on Instagram as 'citizen lexicography'"

Linguistics Vanguard (ahead of print, 2026)

• This article investigates how the Instagram account @cruxingincolor contextualises and reproduces Mountaineering English terminology. Both the way this is accomplished and the contents of the terms are linked to the concept of 'transient mobility'.

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