Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition and diffusion of a new variety
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Linguistics and English Language
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Cheshire J
(2013)
Relative who and the actuation problem
in Lingua
Cheshire J
(2013)
Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun
in Journal of Sociolinguistics
Cheshire J
(2011)
Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English
in Journal of Sociolinguistics
Cheshire, J
(2013)
Language contact and language change in the multicultural metropolis
in Revue Française De Linguistique Appliquée
Cheshire, J.
(2013)
Language contact and language change in the multicultural metropolis.
in Revue Française de Linguistique Appliqué´
Kerswill P
(2014)
Mediatization and Sociolinguistic Change -
Kerswill, P.E.; Cheshire, J.; Fox., S.P.; Torgersen, E.N.
(2013)
English as a Contact Language
Torgersen E
(2012)
An investigation of speech rhythm in London English
in Lingua
| Description | London is thought to be the 'motor of change' in the English language, at least in Britain. Our previous studies revealed that there was widespread 'dialect levelling' in the Southeast, but that, surprisingly, London seemed not to be taking part. Instead, London's inner-city boroughs were developing what the media call 'Jafaican', but we label 'Multicultural London English' (MLE). The linguistic features include distinctive vowels, often reminiscent of Afro-Caribbean, Subcontinental or non-first language English. Unlike in Cockney, 'h' is fully pronounced, but as in Cockney 't' between vowels is a glottal stop and 'th' is often 'f' or 'v'. For the past tense of 'be', young inner-city people follow the pattern 'I was - you was - you wasn't' - he wasn't' instead of 'I was - you was - you weren't - he weren't', which is widespread in the 'levelled' Southeast. Similarly to young English speakers everywhere, young Londoners say 'I was like "that's stupid" and she was like "OK"' - the so-called BE LIKE quotative. But they also use an innovative quotative, saying 'This is me: "let's go home"', rarely found elsewhere. Multiethnic and multilingual cities throughout northern Europe are spawning new varieties of their national languages. 'Multicultural London English' (MLE) is a case in point. Baptised 'Jafaican' by the media, this new variety of English combines pronunciations from the immigrants' languages with features we can trace to Cockney, as well as to general developments in the South of England. Young people of all ethnicities tend to say 'fehs' and 'coht' for face and coat, instead of the traditional 'fice' and 'cowt'. Like young speakers everywhere, Londoners say 'I WAS LIKE "that's stupid". But they also use 'THIS IS ME: "let's go home"', rarely found elsewhere. We wanted to establish how MLE arose. We recorded not only teenagers but also children as young as 4 and adults, too. We found, unexpectedly, that MLE was quite well established among the youngest children, suggesting they acquired it from peers and older children, not their parents, who were mostly not first-language English speakers. Young adults used it, but less consistently than teenagers. Older adults did not, probably because they grew up before it had become established. We investigated whether MLE was similar across ethnicities and districts, and found that, perceptually, listeners could not distinguish ethnicity with any certainty, while more MLE-sounding voices were more likely to be thought to be from London. We conclude that this multiethnic variety emerges because people select from a 'pool' of linguistic features they hear around them, giving rise to a new, possibly permanent, way of speaking. |
| Exploitation Route | We are not currently planning any new research on London. The project has spawned a sister project, Multicultural London English/Multicultural Paris French (ESRC/ANR RES 062 33 0006, 2010-2014), from which important results have begun to emerge, involving similarities between the two cities, and differences also. In the future, our findings should continue to be incorporated into school curricula for English Language. Equally importantly, our results should not only enter the debate about 'good' and 'bad' language, but also form the basis of new research on language and discrimination in education, occupation and areas such as housing. Finally, there is great scope for forensic phonetic applications of our insights. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | The project aimed at providing societal impact in a number of ways. First, the dissemination of results to targeted audiences was planned from the start, in the form of workshops organised for A-level students and teachers in London. Some of this material has been published and is in use in A-level syllabuses. On the strength of the early results from this project, we were able to secure an ESRC Follow-On Fund project From sociolinguistic research to English language teaching (RES189250181, January-December 2011), to use some of our data and results for an online resource for GCSE and A-level English Language teachers, alongside other language-based materials. These can be accessed at http://linguistics-research-digest.blogspot.com/ and http://linguistics.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/english-language-teaching There has been considerable media interest in the project, with contacts ranging from numerous live interviews, through recorded features and newspaper reports to two commissioned articles in the highest-circulation British newspaper. Kerswill was interviewed by Benjamin Zephaniah on Radio 4 as part of the Mind your Slanguage series, as well as by Michael Rosen for Word of Mouth. He was also interviewed by BBC1 News and Channel 4 News. Two invited public lectures have been given in London to contrasting audiences, one to visitors to the British Library's Evolving English exhibition, the other to a much more politically motivated audience at a TED event (TEDxEastEnd). 'Multicultural London English' is now a widely understood and debated term in the British media, and we see this as contributing to a public discussion about language, ethnicity, social class and education. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | ESRC Follow-On funding |
| Amount | £118,753 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RES-189-25-0181 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2011 |
| End | 12/2011 |
| Description | European Union FP7 |
| Amount | € 6,000,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | FP7-SSH-2013-1 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 03/2014 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Title | Multicultural London English corpus |
| Description | Transcribed interviews. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2011 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | A number of scholars have requested digital copies of this database. |
| Description | How data from sociolinguistic studies can be used in materials for schools and colleges |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper given at the British Association for Applied Linguistics annual meeting None. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Mind your slanguage |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Paul Kerswill, professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University, is interviewed in this Radio 4 programme in which Benjamin Zephaniah explores youth language and slang in Britain. none |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Multicultural London English |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture at the British Library, as part of their 'Evolving English' exhibition. None. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Who's an Eastender Now? TEDx lecture, Sept 2011 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited TEDx talk. 8600 hits as per November 2014 This vidio was referred to in a blog by the Guardian journalist David Hill: http://www.theguardian.com/society/davehillblog/2013/feb/06/paul-kerswill-multicultural-london-english |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAnFbJ65KYM |
| Description | school visit (Kelmscott School, London E17) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards; After my talk, teachers contacted me for further information that they could use in their teaching of GCSE English Language |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |