Multicultural London English

Multicultural London English
Region London
Early forms
English alphabet (Latin script) ― mainly a spoken dialect; MLE speakers write in standard British English.
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog None

Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE) is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken authentically by working-class, mainly young, people in London (although there is evidence to suggest that certain features are spreading further afield[1]). According to research conducted at Lancaster University and Queen Mary University of London, "In much of the East End of London the Cockney dialect... will have disappeared within another generation.... it will be gone [from the East End] within 30 years.... It has been ‘transplanted’ to... [Essex and Hertfordshire New] towns."[2][3]

As the label suggests, speakers of MLE come from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and live in diverse inner-city neighbourhoods such as Tower Hamlets and Hackney. As a result, it is (arguably) regarded as a multiethnolect.[4] One study was unable ‘‘to isolate distinct (discrete) ethnic styles’’ in their data on phonetics and quotatives in Hackney and commented that the ‘‘differences between ethnicities, where they exist, are quantitative in nature’’.[5] In fact, they find that it is diversity of friendship groups that is most important; the more ethnically diverse an adolescent's friendship networks are, the more likely it is that they will speak MLE.[5]

In the press, MLE is often referred to as ‘‘Jafaican’’ because of ‘‘popular belief’’ that it stems from ‘‘immigrants of Jamaican and African descent’’.[4][6][7] However, research suggests that the roots of MLE are much more complex.[8][9][10] Two Economic and Social Research Council funded research projects[11][12] found that MLE has most likely developed as a result of Language contact and group second language acquisition.[13] Specifically, it can contain elements from ‘‘learners’ varieties of English, Englishes from the Indian subcontinent aka South Asia, Africa, Caribbean creoles and [Caribbean] Englishes, along with their indigenised London versions..., local London and south-eastern vernacular varieties of English, local and international youth slang, as well as more ... standard-like varieties from various sources’’.[14]

Features

Grammar

Standard English Non-standard system 1 Non-standard system 2 (MLE)
I was, I wasn't I was, I weren't I was, I wasn't
You were, you weren't You was, you weren't You was, you wasn't
He/she/it was, he/she/it wasn't He/she/it was, he/she/it weren't He/she/it was, he/she/it wasn't
We were, we weren't We was, we weren't We was, we wasn't

Phonology

Phonetics

While older speakers in London display a vowel and consonant system that matches earlier descriptions, young speakers largely have different qualities. The qualities are on the whole not the levelled ones noted in recent studies (such as Williams & Kerswill 1999 and Przedlacka 2002) of teenage speakers in South East England outside London: Milton Keynes, Reading, Luton, Essex, Slough and Ashford. Yet, from principles of levelling, it would be expected that younger speakers would show precisely these levelled qualities, with further developments reflecting the innovatory status of London as well as the passage of time. However, evidence, such as Kerswill & al. 2006 and Torgerson & al. 2007, contradicts that expectation:\

Vowels

Consonants

Vocabulary

Examples of vocabulary common in Multicultural London English include:

Adjectives

Interjections

Pronouns

Nouns

Verbs

Use in popular culture

See also

Citations

  1. "UrBEn-ID Urban British English project".
  2. University of Lancaster press release 2010.
  3. BBC News 2010.
  4. 1 2 Cheshire, Jenny; Nortier, Jacomine; Adger, David (2015). "Emerging Multiethnolects in Europe" (PDF). Queen Mary Occasional Papers in Linguistics: 4.
  5. 1 2 Cheshire, Jenny; Fox, Sue; Kerswill, Paul; Torgersen, Eivind (2008). "Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London". Sociolinguistica. 22 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1515/9783484605299.1.
  6. Braier, Rachel (2013). "Jafaican? No we're not.". The Guardian.
  7. Clark, Laura (2006). "Jafaican is wiping out inner-city English accents". The Daily Mail.
  8. "Paul Kerswill, University of York webpage".
  9. "Susan Fox, University of Bern webpage".
  10. "Eivind Torgersen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology webpage".
  11. "Linguistic Innovators: The English of Adolescents in London ESRC grant page".
  12. "Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition and diffusion of a new variety ESRC grant page".
  13. 1 2 3 Cheshire, Jenny; Kerswill, Paul; Fox, Sue; Torgersen, Eivind (2011-04-01). "Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 15 (2): 151–196. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00478.x. ISSN 1467-9841.
  14. Kerswill 2013, p. 5.
  15. Wolfram, Walt; Schilling-Estes, Natalie (1994). "Convergent explanation and alternative regularization patterns: Were/weren't leveling in a vernacular English variety.". Language Variation and Change. 6:273-302.
  16. Cheshire, Jenny; Fox, Sue (2008). "Was/were variation: A perspective from London". Language Variation and Change. 21 (1): 1–38. doi:10.1017/S0954394509000015. ISSN 1469-8021.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kerswill 2007.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kerswill et al. 2006.
  19. Cheshire et al. 2005.
  20. Torgerson et al. 2007.
  21. FASS.
  22. Lindsey 2011.
  23. BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35152397 BBC Check |url= value (help). Missing or empty |title= (help)

References

Further reading

External links

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