MLE

• Ethnolect


  Outdated term that refers to any variety related to any ethnic groups – usually in a white context in relation to a minority
• Multiethnolect


  More recent term used to describe a variety that is a product of the influence of different heritage language but has the mainstream dialect as core
• Multiethnolects


  • Constantly changing with the invention of new words and in turn some dying out relatively quickly
• Multicultural London English (MLE)


  Label used by Kerswill, Fox and Cheshire to describe the pool of features (words, grammar and pronunciation) they observed in their study of 16-19 year olds from 1 inner and 1 outer London area
• Multicultural Urban British English (MUBE)


  Term that describes the variety seen in other urban areas where there are large communities from a variety of cultures living in the same places, similar to MLE but also includes features from the local accent
• Features of MLE

  • Phonology: Monothongisation, /k/ and /g/ pronounced from further back in the throat, GOOSE fronting, T flapping, /h/ retention
  • Vocabulary: Beef, Blood, Endz, Brazy, On road, Ting, Choong
  • Grammar: 'dem' as plural marker, Man as pronoun, Discourse markers: 'innit', 'you get me?', Quotative 'this is me', Why...for? question frame
• The term ethnolect doesn't capture how fluid the speech of people with different ethnicities can be, it suggests that everyone with a particular ethnicity speaks in that way
• Multiethnolect captures how these varieties are less of a dialect and more of a repertoire of features that each speaker uses differently and can change their use of features in different social contexts
• MUBE shares features of MLE like h retention and monothongisation, but also includes features from the mainstream dialect in the area