Book contents
- Language in Britain and Ireland
- Language in Britain and Ireland
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Map of Britain and Ireland
- Introduction
- Part I English
- Part II Multilingualism in Britain and Ireland: The Celtic Languages
- Part III Multilingualism in Britain and Ireland: Minority Languages
- Part IV Multilingualism: The Development of Urban Contact Varieties
- 21 Multicultural London English
- 22 British Asian English
- 23 Multicultural British English
- Part V Applied Sociolinguistic Issues
- Index
- References
23 - Multicultural British English
from Part IV - Multilingualism: The Development of Urban Contact Varieties
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 October 2024
By
Edited by
Book contents
- Language in Britain and Ireland
- Language in Britain and Ireland
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Map of Britain and Ireland
- Introduction
- Part I English
- Part II Multilingualism in Britain and Ireland: The Celtic Languages
- Part III Multilingualism in Britain and Ireland: Minority Languages
- Part IV Multilingualism: The Development of Urban Contact Varieties
- 21 Multicultural London English
- 22 British Asian English
- 23 Multicultural British English
- Part V Applied Sociolinguistic Issues
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter describes some of what we know so far about a possible Multicultural British English (MBE) by first explaining where it fits in terms of Multicultural London English (MLE) and how it has been labelled up to now. It draws upon research which has investigated varieties of English that appear to contain features of MLE, yet which are used outside of London. In doing so, it explores how local and supralocal linguistic features might work alongside features of MLE to create regional versions of an underlying variety of English, MBE, that exists in various locations across the UK. The chapter describes a few of the phonological, lexical and syntactic features of a Manchester-oriented MBE, before providing insights into the extent to which some of its speakers are aware of the language they use. Finally, the chapter discusses the role of grime music in the development and possible diffusion of MBE, and calls for further research to be carried out.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language in Britain and Ireland , pp. 491 - 508Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Adams, Z. (2018). ‘I don’t know why man’s calling me family all of a sudden’: Address and reference terms in grime music. Language and Communication 60: 11–27.Google Scholar
Baranowski, M. (2017). Class matters: The sociolinguistics of goose and goat in Manchester English. Language Variation and Change 29: 301–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchstaller, I. (2014). Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheshire, J. (2013). Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17: 608–33.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J., Nortier, J. M. and Adger, D. (2015). Emerging multiethnolects in Europe. Queen Mary’s Occasional Papers Advancing Linguistics 33.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J., Kerswill, P., Fox, S. and Torgersen, E. (2011). Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2): 151–96.Google Scholar
Cutler, C. (1999). Yorkville crossing: White teens, hip hop and African American English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3: 428–42.Google Scholar
Drager, K. (2009). A Sociophonetic Ethnography of Selwyn Girls’ High. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Canterbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drummond, R. (2016). (Mis)interpreting urban youth language: White kids sounding black? Journal of Youth Studies 20(5): 640–60.Google Scholar
Drummond, R. (2018a). Researching Urban Youth Language and Identity. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drummond, R. (2018b). The changing language of urban youth: A pilot study. In Braber, N. and Jansen, S. (eds.), Sociolinguistics in England. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 67–96.Google Scholar
Drummond, R. (2018c). Maybe it’s a grime [t] ing: th-stopping among urban British youth. Language in Society 47(2): 171–96.Google Scholar
Drummond, R., Dann, H., Ryan, S. and Tasker, S. (2022). Manchester Voices. Exhibition at Manchester Central Library and online. http://explore.manchestervoices.org.Google Scholar
Fox, S., Khan, A. and Torgersen, E. (2011). The emergence and diffusion of Multicultural English. In Kern, F. and Selting, M. (eds.), Ethnic Styles of Speaking in European Metropolitan Areas. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 19–44.Google Scholar
Gates, S. (2018). Why the long face? Ethnic stratification and variation in the London diphthong system. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 24(2): 38–48.Google Scholar
Green, J. (2014). Multicultural London English: The new ‘youthspeak’. In Coleman, J. (ed.), Global English Slang: Methodologies and Perspectives. London: Routledge, pp. 62–71.Google Scholar
Howley, G. (2015). The Acquisition of Manchester Dialect Variants by Adolescent Roma Migrants. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salford.Google Scholar
Hughes, A., Trudgill, P. and Watt, D. (2013). English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ilbury, C. (2023). The recontextualisation of Multicultural London English: Stylising the ‘roadman’. Language in Society, published online 11 April 2023. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404523000143.Google Scholar
Ilbury, C. and Kerswill, P. (2023). How multiethnic is a multiethnolect? The recontextualisation of Multicultural London English. In Svendsen, B. and Jonsson, R. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Language and Youth Culture. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Khan, A. (2006). A Sociolinguistic Study of Birmingham English: Language Variation and Change in a Multi-Ethnic British Community. Unpublished PhD thesis, Lancaster University.Google Scholar
MacDonald, R. (2008). Disconnected youth? Social exclusion, the ‘underclass’ & economic marginality. Social Work & Society 6(2): 236–48.Google Scholar
Paver, A. (2019). ‘Mashallah, bruv man’: Regional Variation and Multiethnolects in British Pakistani Men. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of York.Google Scholar
Quist, P. (2008). Sociolinguistic approaches to multiethnolect: Language variety and stylistic practice. International Journal of Bilingualism 12: 43–61.Google Scholar
Rampton, B. (1995). Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Torgersen, E., Gabrielatos, C., Hoffmann, S. and Fox, S. (2011). A corpus-based study of pragmatic markers in London English. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 7(1): 93–118.Google Scholar