This article proposes to reassess the dynamic history of English in the 20th century up until the turn of the 21st century through the prism of communities in transit. Combining the perspective of the language with diaspora studies the article argues that diasporas are not only shaped by a language of former colonial origin but in turn shape it, inflecting its grammar to suit their needs, bending its rules when necessary and most of all speaking their home language through English in a sort of creative polyphony. This position, at the crossroads between diasporic and global studies, proposes to look at the diasporic perspective as a dynamic perspective on globality which allows one to gauge the degree of cultural resilience of cultural diversity and local moorings which continue to exist and are expressed in and despite a language which has become global.