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 dialect (and/or sociolect) of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken authentically by working-class, mainly young, people in London. However, elements of the sociolect are widely imitated throughout southern England. According to research conducted at Lancaster University, Multicultural London English is gaining territory from Cockney: the University released a press briefing in 2010 in which Professor Paul Kerswill said, ’’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.’’ [1][2]

According to Kerswill, it can contain elements from ‘‘at the very least’’, ‘‘learners’ varieties of English, Englishes from the Indian subcontinent and 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’’.[3]

In the press, the ‘‘London multiethnolect’’[4] is referred to as ‘‘Jafaican’’ because of ‘‘popular belief’’[4] that it stems from ‘‘immigrants of Jamaican and African descent’’.[4] Cheshire et al. were unable, in 2007, ‘‘to isolate distinct (discrete) ethnic styles’’ in their data for Hackney on phonetics and quotatives and commented that the ‘‘differences between ethnicities... are quantitative in nature’’. [5] Fox et al., who, in 2011, documented diffusion of Multicultural English,[6] stressed their ‘‘analyses are based on vernacular speech in sustained discourse with a fieldworker present, so it is unlikely that the White British speakers were adopting an out-group way of speaking for the purposes of stylization’’. [4]

Features

Grammar

The past tense of the verb ‘‘to be’’ is regularised, with ‘‘was’’ variably used for all conjugations to different extents, and ‘‘weren’t’’ likewise for negative conjugations. This gives ‘‘I was, you was/you were, he was’’ etc., and ‘‘I wasn’t/I weren’t, you wasn’t/you weren’t, he wasn’t/he weren’t’’ etc.[7] This is in common with other dialects elsewhere in the UK, including ‘‘Outer London’’.[8] This feature is rarer among those of Bangladeshi ethnicity for whom the conjugation of BE tends to be that of Standard English.[8]

An innovative[8] feature is the ability to form questions in ‘‘Why ... for?’’[8] compared to Standard English ‘‘Why ...?’’ or ‘‘What ... for?’’.

Tag-questions are limited to ‘‘isn’t it’’, realised as ‘‘innit’’, and the corresponding ‘‘is it?’’.

The ‘‘traditional Southern’’[8] England phrasal preposition ‘‘off of’’ has ‘‘robust use’’,[8] especially with ‘‘Anglo females’’.[8]

‘‘Man’’ is sometimes used as a first-person singular pronoun, which may be rendered ‘‘manz’’ when combined with certain verbs such as ‘‘to be’’ and ‘‘to have’’: ‘‘manz got arrested’’, ‘‘manz getting emotional’’ (said in the film Anuvahood).

‘‘Man’’ can also be used to refer to the second-person singular: ‘‘Where's man going?’’ (Where are you going?)

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:

Some features continue changes already noted in the South East:

Vocabulary

Examples of vocabulary common in Multicultural London English include:

Adjectives

Interjections

Pronouns

Nouns

Verbs

Use in popular culture

See also

Citations

References

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.