Ethnicity

• MLE, multicultural English

  Popular among black teenagers in London.

  • Lexical - ‘peng’
  • Grammatical - ‘man’ replacing pronouns
  • Phonological - th-stopping, instead pronouncing it as ‘f’

  Often nicknamed ‘Jafaican’ due to its Jamaican roots
• Rampton


  MLE is spread through friendship groups
• Kerswill

  MLE will replace Cockney Rhyming Slang (CRS)
• Khan

  Ethnicity is a central factor influencing a person’s language
• Holmes , Māori/English study


  Code switched to Maori for inter personal exchanges and greeting each other, shows solidarity. Creates another identity in a particular context.
• Sharma


  Studied Anwar, show a great deal of variation in speech styles. From almost 100% ‘Indian’ when speaking to Sri Lankan maid, to 100% ’British’ when speaking to a mechanic ( who was a traditional working class Londoner ). Also found that younger speakers did not adjust their speech so much, arguing that there is perhaps less need to do so due to the different social environment they have grown-up in.
• Becker


  argues that we too often prioritise ethnicity when describing and explaining realistic differences between groups of speakers, ignoring other aspects. Exaggeration.