Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE) is a
sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acqui ...
of
English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by young,
working-class people in
multicultural
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
parts of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
As the label suggests, speakers of MLE come from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and live in diverse neighbourhoods. As a result, it can be regarded as a
multiethnolect.
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".
Linguists have suggested that diversity of friendship groups is a contributing factor to the development of MLE; the more ethnically diverse an adolescent's friendship networks are, the more likely it is that they will speak MLE.
Variants of MLE have emerged in diverse neighbourhoods of other cities, such as
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, which fuse elements of MLE with local influences.
This has led to some linguists referring to an overarching variety of English known as Multicultural British English (MBE), also known as Multicultural Urban British English (MUBE) or Urban British English (abbreviated UBE), which emerged from and is heavily influenced by MLE.
History
MLE is rooted mostly in the widespread migration from the
Caribbean to the UK following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and to a lesser extent the migration from other areas such as
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
and
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
. Distinctive
Black British slang did not become widely visible until the 1970s. The popularity of
Jamaican music
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
Reggae is especially popular through the international fame of Bob Marley. ...
in the UK, such as
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
and
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
, led to the emergence of slang rooted in
Jamaican patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English ...
being used in the UK, setting the foundation for what would later become known as MLE.
Research conducted in the early 1980s concluded that adolescents of
Afro-Caribbean descent were 'bidialectal', switching between Jamaican creole and London English; while white working class adolescents would occasionally use creole-inspired slang, they retained their accents.
In 1985,
Smiley Culture, a British musician of Jamaican and Guyanese heritage, released "Cockney Translator", one of the first examples of British 'white slang' and British 'Black slang' appearing side-by-side on a record (however, still distinct from each other).
While Smiley Culture was commenting on how the two forms of slang were very distinct from each other and lived side-by-side, more natural fusions would become common in later years. Some hip-hop artists from the late 80s and early 90s, such as
London Posse, regularly infused both cockney and patois influenced slang in their music, showcasing how elements of both were becoming very much entwined and influencing each other, reflecting how younger, working-class Londoners were speaking.
Such influences were not restricted to persons of a specific racial background. In 1987,
Dick Hebdige, a British sociologist, commented that "In some parts of Britain, West Indian patois has become the public language of inner-city youths, irrespective of their racial origin".
By the late 1990s, London was becoming increasingly more multilingual, and residential segregation was less common. Young people from various ethnic backgrounds intermixed and, in
Hackney at least, Cockney was no longer the majority-spoken local dialect, resulting in children of various ethnic backgrounds adopting MLE.
Linguist
Tony Thorne noted that white working-class school kids were using "recreolised lexis". In the following decade, it would become ever more common, showcased prominently in music such as
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
and British hip hop, and in films like Kidulthood.
As the media became more aware of MLE in the 2000s, a variety of names emerged to describe it such as "Nang slang", "Blinglish", "Tikkiny", or "Blockney". MLE is sometimes referred to as "Jafaican" (or "Jafaikan"), conveying the idea of "fake Jamaican", because of popular belief that it stems solely from immigrants of
Jamaican and Caribbean descent.
However, research suggests that the roots of MLE are more varied: two
Economic and Social Research Council funded research projects found that MLE has most likely developed as a result of
language contact and group second language acquisition.
Specifically, it can contain elements from "
learners' varieties of English, Englishes from the Indian subcontinent and Africa, Caribbean
creoles and 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 levelled and standard-like varieties from various sources."
According to research conducted at
Lancaster University and
Queen Mary University of London
, mottoeng = With united powers
, established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College
, type = Public researc ...
in 2010, "In much of the East End of London the Cockney dialect... will have disappeared within another generation.... it will be gone
rom the East End
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* R ...
within 30 years.... It has been 'transplanted' to...
ssex and Hertfordshire Newtowns."
With the worldwide growth of
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
and
UK drill from the mid-2010s onwards, elements of MLE began to spread internationally along with the genres. Some Australian, Canadian, Dutch, and Irish musicians, such as
Onefour
ONEFOUR (stylised in all caps) are an Australian drill and rap group originating from the Western Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt. They are regarded by many as the pioneers of drill-rap in Australia. Paving the way for the Australian Drill scene ...
,
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
, and 73 De Pijp, for example, have been noted for using slang derivatives of MLE. Kate Burridge and Howard Manns, both Australian linguists, also noted that some MLE phrases (such as 'peng', meaning attractive or good) were being used generally by Australian youth.
Similar influences have also been noted in Finnish teenagers.
It has been noted that in other countries, such as Canada,
Multicultural Toronto English has developed very strong similarities derived from MLE, which arose independently but with similar cultural influences and origin roots. A Canadian linguist, Derek Denis, has been noting MTE for some of the MLE phrases (such as "mans", meaning a group of guys, "wasteman", meaning someone's a waste of space or a loser, and “yute”, a slang term of Jamaican origin for “youth”, used to refer to a young adult or child), which were commonly used by Torontonian youths.
Grammar
* ''Was/were'' variation: The past tense of the verb "to be" is
regularised. Regularisation of ''was/were'' is something that is found across the English speaking world. Many non-standard systems in Britain (and parts of the US Mid-Atlantic coast) use ''was'' variably for positive conjugations, and ''weren't'' for negative conjugations (System 1 below) to make the distinction between positive and negative contexts clearer (''cf.'' will/won't and are/ain't). Most non-Standard varieties in the English speaking world have a system where both positive and negative contexts have levelled to ''was'' (System 2 below).
Speakers of MLE use any of the three systems, with choice correlating with ethnicity and gender.
Cheshire and Fox (2008) found the use of non-standard ''was'' to be most common among Black Caribbean speakers, and least common among those of Bangladeshi descent.
Bangladeshis were also found to use non-standard ''weren't'' the least, but this variable was used more by white British speakers than anyone else.
* An innovative feature is the ability to form questions in "Why ... for?" compared to Standard English "Why ...?" or "What ... for?".
* The "traditional Southern" England phrasal preposition "off of" has "robust use", especially with "Anglo females".
* ''Man'' as a pronoun: 'Man' is widely used as a first person singular pronoun, which may be rendered "man's" when combined with certain verbs such as "to be" and "to have": "man got arrested", "man's getting emotional". "Man" can also be used to refer to the second-person or third-person singular: "Where's man going?" (Where are you/is he going?)
Discourse-pragmatic markers
* ''Innit'', arguably a reduction of 'isn't it', has a third discourse function in MLE, in addition to the widespread usage as a
tag-question or a follow-up as in
and
below. In MLE, ''innit'' can also mark information structure overtly, to mark a topic or to foreground new information, as in the italicised example in
:
'' they was getting jealous though ''innit''
:
'' Hadiya: it weren't like it was an accident
: Bisa: ''innit''
:
'' yeah I know. I'm a lot smaller than all of them man and who were like "whoa". I mean the sister ''innit'' she's about five times bigger than you innit Mark?
* ''This is'' as a quotative, to introduce direct reported speech at key points in dramatic narrative.
: ''this is'' my mum's boyfriend "put that in your pocket now".
Phonology
While older speakers in London today display a vowel and consonant system that matches previously dominant accents such as
Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
, young speakers often display 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
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
outside London:
Milton Keynes,
Reading,
Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
,
Slough and
Ashford. From principles of levelling, it would be expected that younger speakers would show precisely the levelled qualities, with further developments reflecting the innovatory status of London as well as the passage of time. However, evidence, such as Cheshire ''et al.'' (2011) and Cheshire ''et al.'' (2013), contradicts that expectation.
Vowels
*
Fronting of , the vowel in FOOT: "more retracted in the outer-city borough of Havering than in Hackney"
* Lack of -fronting: fronting of the offset of "absent in most inner-London speakers" of both sexes and all ethnicities but "present in
outer-city girls".
* -lowering across region: it is seen as a reversal of the
diphthong shift. However, the added fronting is greater in London than in the southeastern periphery, resulting in variants such as . Fronting and monophthongisation of are correlated with ethnicity and strongest among
Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) speakers. It seems to be a geographically directional and
diachronically gradual process. The change (from approximately ) involves lowering of the onset, and as such, it is a reversal of the diphthong shift. It can be interpreted as a London innovation with diffusion to the periphery.
* Raised onset of the vowel in words like FACE, which results in variants such as . Like , monophthongisation of is strongest among BAME. It is also seen as a reversal of the diphthong shift.
* realised as and not "levelled" : In inner-city London, is the norm for . Additionally, is used by some BAME, especially girls, in the inner city.
*Advanced
fronting of results in realisations such as
* Backing of can result in variants such as .
* Backing of results in variants such as or , rather than .
Consonants
* Reversal of
H-dropping: word-initial was commonly dropped in traditional Cockney in words like ''hair'' and ''hand''. That is now much less common, with some MLE speakers not dropping at all.
* Backing of to : is pronounced further back in the vocal tract and is realised as when it occurs before non-high back vowels, such as in words like ''cousin'' and ''come''.
*
Th-fronting: is fronted to in words such as ''three'' and ''through'' (which become ''free'' and ''frough''), and is fronted to words such as ''brother'' and ''another'', which become ''bruvver'' and ''anuvver''.
*
Th-stopping: interdental fricatives can be stopped, and ''thing'' and ''that'' become ''ting'' and ''dat''.
* According to
Geoff Lindsey, one of the most striking features of MLE is the advanced articulation of the sibilants as post-dental .
* Like most accents of England, Multicultural London English is
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
.
Vocabulary
Examples of vocabulary common in Multicultural London English include:
Adjectives
*"Bait" (obvious, or well known)
*"Balling" (rich)
*"Bare" (very/a lot/many)
*"Booky" (suspicious, strange)
*"Buff" (strong/attractive) (can be used in conjunction with "ting" meaning an attractive situation, or more commonly, an attractive woman)
*"Butters" (ugly, or disgusting)
*"Dead/bad" (boring, empty)
*"Deep" (very unfortunate/serious) (used to describe a situation)
*"Dutty" (dirty, bad, ugly)
*"Gassed" (overwhelmed, happy, excited, full of oneself)
*"Greezy" (bad)
*"Gully" (rough, cool)
*"Hench" (physically fit, strong)
*"Leng" (attractive, gun, something good)
*"Long" (laborious, tedious)
*"Moist" (soft / uncool, more extreme form of ‘wet’)
*"Peak" (a situation or thing that is awful, undesirable, disappointing, or embarrassing. Originally it held a positive connotation)
*"Peng" (attractive person, or something good)
*"Piff" (attractive person, something good)
*"Safe" (greetings, good)
*"Shook" (scared)
*"Wavey" (high or drunk)
*"Wet" (uncool, boring, soft)
Interjections
*"Dun know" ("of course" or "you already know", also an expression of approval. An abbreviated form of "You done know" as in "You done know how it goes".)
*"Alie/Ahlie!" ("Am I lying?", used as an expression of agreement)
*"Oh, my days!" (a generalised exclamation, previously common in the 1940s and 1950s)
*"Safe" (expression of approval, greeting, thanks, agreement, and also used as a
parting phrase)
*"Rah!" (exclamation, used to express bad, excitement, shocking, unbelievable, wow)
*"Big man ting" ("seriously"/used before making a statement)
*"Swear down!" ("swear it", "really?")
Pronouns
* "Man" (first or second-person singular)
* "You" (second-person singular)
* "My man" (third-person singular, masculine)
*"My G" (short for "my guy")
* "My guy" (close friend or acquaintance)
* "Dem man" (they)
* "Us man" (we)
* "You man" (you, plural)
Nouns
* "Akh" (a term of endearment, derived from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
word for brother)
* "Blem" (a cigarette)
*"Blud" (an endearing term for a close friend; from "blood" implying family)
* "Boss(man)" (used to refer to an individual, often a service worker in a convenience store or chicken shop)* "Bruv" (an endearing term used for a close friend or brother)
* "Creps" (shoes, more typically trainers or sneakers)
* "Ends" (neighbourhood)
* "Fam" (short for "family", can also refer to "friend")
* "Gally" (girl(s))
* "Garms" (clothes, derived from garments)
* "Gyal" (girl)
* "Gyaldem" (group of girls)
* "Mandem" (group of men, male friends)
* "Paigon" (a modified spelling of
English word "
pagan", to refer to a fake friend/enemy)
* "Rambo" (knife)
* "Riddim" (instrumental/beat of a song)
* "Roadman" (a youth member that spends a lot of time on the streets and may sell and use drugs, or cause trouble)
* "Shank" (to stab, knife)
* "Side ting" (sexual partner other than a girlfriend/wife, as in the standard British phrase "a bit on the side")
*"Skeng" (gun, knife)
*"Sket" (a promiscuous woman)
* "Ting" (a thing or a situation, also an attractive woman)
* "Wasteman" (a worthless/useless person)
* "Upsuh" (out of town)
* "Wap" (gun)
* "Wifey" (girlfriend or wife)
* "Yard" (house or dwelling)
Verbs
*"Air" (to ignore somebody)
*"Aks" (ask, an example of
metathesis that also occurs in
West Country dialects
West Country English is a group of English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of South West England, the area sometimes popularly known as the West Country.
The West Country is often defined as encompass ...
)
*"Allow (it/that)" (to urge someone else to exercise self-restraint)
*"Beef" (argument, fight)
*"Beg" (please, a wannabe/try-hard)
*"Bun" (to smoke, to kill someone)
*"Buss" (to give/to send, to bust, or to ejaculate)
*"Chat breeze" (talk rubbish/lie)
*"Cheff" (stab, from a chef cutting with a knife)
*"Ching" (stab)
*"Chirpse" (to flirt with somebody)
*"Clap" (to hit/shoot/attack)
*"Cotch" (to hang out)
*"Crease" (to laugh hysterically)
*"Dash" (to throw)
*"Gas" (to lie)
*"Jack" (to steal something)
*"Kweff" (to stab)
*"Link (up)" (to meet up, give someone something, pre-relationship status)
*"Lips" (to kiss, specifically on the mouth)
*"Merk" (to beat someone, finish someone off)
*"Par (off)" (to verbally abuse someone, or to make a mockery of someone)
*"Pattern" (to fix something/yourself up/get something/get something done)
*"Pree" (to stare at something or someone)
*"Shoobz" (to party)
*"Touch yard" (to have reached home)
*"Twos" (to share something with somebody)
In popular culture
* In
The Real McCoy
"The real McCoy" is an idiom and metaphor used in much of the English-speaking world to mean "the real thing" or "the genuine article", e.g. "he's the real McCoy". The phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies.
History
The phr ...
, one of the earliest seen forms of the language is widespread throughout this series.
* The Bhangra Muffin characters from ''
Goodness Gracious Me'' use an early form of Multicultural London English.
* Characters of all ethnicities in the Channel 4 series ''
Phoneshop'' use Multicultural London English continually.
* Characters in the film ''
Kidulthood
''Kidulthood'' (stylised as ''KiDULTHOOD'') is a 2006 British crime drama film directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke, who appeared in the film alongside Aml Ameen, Red Madrell, Adam Deacon, Jaime Winstone, Femi Oyeniran, Madelei ...
'' and its sequel ''
Adulthood
An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majo ...
'' also use the dialect, as well as the parody film ''
Anuvahood''.
* The
satirical character
Ali G parodies the speech patterns of Multicultural London English for comic effect.
* The gang protagonists of the film ''
Attack the Block'' speak Multicultural London English.
* Several characters in the sitcom ''
People Just Do Nothing'' speak Multicultural London English.
*
Lauren Cooper (and her friends Lisa and Ryan) from ''
The Catherine Tate Show
''The Catherine Tate Show'' is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. ''The Catherine Tate Show'' airs on ...
'' often use Multicultural London English vocabulary.
* In the feature film ''
Kingsman: The Secret Service'', the protagonist Gary "Eggsy" Unwin uses MLE, but his mother and stepfather use regular Cockney.
* Lisa, the police officer in ''
Little Miss Jocelyn'', speaks Multicultural London English and interprets speech for colleagues.
* ''
Armstrong & Miller'' has a series of
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
sketches with two
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
pilots who juxtapose the dialect's vocabulary and grammar with a 1940s
RP accent for comedic effect.
* A BBC article about
Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...
mentioned her as being a speaker of Multicultural London English.
*
The Chicken Connoisseur (Elijah Quashie), a
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
user who rates the quality of takeaways selling chicken and chips, frequently uses Multicultural London English vocabulary.
* The TV show ''
Chewing Gum
Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/ plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its t ...
'' uses Multicultural London English throughout.
* The song "Man's Not Hot" by comedian
Michael Dapaah
Michael Dapaah (born 10 August 1991) is a British actor, rapper, and comedian best known for portraying the fictional rapper Big Shaq (also known as Roadman Shaq). He is also known for his mockumentary ''SWIL'' (Somewhere in London), which fo ...
under the pseudonym Big Shaq, which satirises
UK drill music, utilises MLE.
*Many of the characters in the show ''
Top Boy
''Top Boy'' is a British television crime drama series, created and written by Ronan Bennett. The series is set in the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London Borough of Hackney and focuses on two drug dealers Dushane ( Ashley Walters) and ...
'' use Multicultural London English.
*The main characters and most characters in supporting roles use Multicultural London English in the show ''
Man Like Mobeen''.
See also
*
Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
*
Estuary English
Estuary English is an English accent associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the south ...
*
Koiné language
*
Multiethnolect
Citations
References
*University of Lancaster press release,
*
* In: Auer, Peter, Hilpert, Martin, Stukenbrock, Anja and Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt,(eds.) Space in language and linguistics. linguae and litterae . Walter de Gruyter, pp. 128–164.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*David Sutcliffe, ''Black British English'', Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982.
Linguistic innovators: the English of adolescents in London Oxford Graduate Seminar, 12 November 2007 (ppt).
*Paul Kerswill and Eivind Torgersen
Endogenous change in inner-London teenage speech as the generator of vowel innovations(ppt).
External links
* Paul Kerswill's Multicultural London English Page
Multicultural London English – Language and Linguistic Science, The University of York* Paul Kerswill: A new urban dialect in a connected world: Multicultural London English (lecture given at Shaanxi Normal University, 2019)
* Emily Ashton
Learn Jafaikan in Two Minutes ''The Guardian'', 12 April 2006.
{{Black British topics
20th-century establishments in England
Languages attested from the 20th century
City colloquials
English language in England
English language in London
Multiculturalism in the United Kingdom
Working-class culture in England
Youth culture in the United Kingdom