Ethnicity and Language

Language is intimately connected to ethnic identity. The varieties of English spoken by different ethnic communities reflect histories of migration, cultural contact, and identity negotiation. This lesson examines the linguistic features of ethnically marked varieties of English — including Multicultural London English, African American Vernacular English, and creoles — and explores the sociolinguistic processes of code-switching, crossing, and identity construction.

Key Definition: Ethnolect is a variety of a language associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnolects emerge through language contact and are maintained as markers of group identity.

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Multicultural London English (MLE)

Multicultural London English (MLE) is a variety of English that has emerged in London since the late twentieth century, spoken predominantly by young people in ethnically diverse, urban areas. It draws on features from Caribbean creoles, South Asian languages, West African languages, and Cockney, but it is not simply a blend of these — it is a new, distinctive variety.

Key Research: Cheshire et al. (2011)

Jenny Cheshire, Paul Kerswill, Sue Fox, and Eivind Torgersen (2011) conducted the Linguistic Innovators project, studying the speech of young people in Hackney (inner London) and Havering (outer London). Their findings demonstrated that MLE was emerging as a major new variety of English.

Phonological Features of MLE

Feature	MLE Form	Traditional Cockney/RP Form
TH-fronting	/f/ and /v/ for /θ/ and /ð/ ("fink" for "think")	Also Cockney; absent in RP
K-backing	/k/ produced further back in the mouth	Absent in Cockney and RP
GOOSE-fronting	/uː/ fronted to [ʉː]	Some RP speakers also show this
FACE and GOAT monophthongs	/eɪ/ → [eː], /əʊ/ → [oː]	Cockney has wider diphthongs
Syllable-timed rhythm	More even stress on syllables	English is typically stress-timed

The shift towards syllable-timed rhythm is particularly significant, as it represents a fundamental change in the prosodic structure of English. Cheshire et al. attributed this to the influence of syllable-timed languages such as Yoruba, Twi, and Jamaican Creole in the linguistic environment.

Grammatical Features of MLE

• "Man" as a pronoun: "Man's not hot" (meaning "I'm not hot"). This usage is widespread in MLE.
• Quotative "this is me": Used to introduce reported speech — "So this is me: 'I'm not going.'"
• "Bare" as an intensifier: "There were bare people there" (meaning "very many people").
• Zero copula: Omission of "is" or "are" — "She Ø nice" for "She is nice."

Evaluation

• MLE is not confined to any single ethnic group — it is used by young Londoners of diverse backgrounds, including white British speakers. This challenges the idea that ethnolects are used only by members of a specific ethnic group.
• It is spreading beyond London to other urban centres, suggesting a process of dialect levelling influenced by urbanisation and multiculturalism.
• However, MLE is sometimes stigmatised in education and media, reflecting broader attitudes towards non-standard urban speech.

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African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) — also known as African American English (AAE) or Black English Vernacular (BEV) — is a systematic, rule-governed variety of English spoken by many African Americans, particularly in urban contexts. It has been extensively studied by William Labov (1972) and others.

Key Definition: AAVE is a variety of English with distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, spoken primarily by African Americans. It has its own internally consistent rules and is not a collection of errors.

Phonological Features

Feature	AAVE	Standard American English
TH-stopping	/d/ for /ð/ ("dis" for "this")	/ð/
Final consonant cluster reduction	"tes'" for "test," "han'" for "hand"	Full cluster
R-lessness (non-rhoticity)	"fo'" for "four"	Rhotic in most American varieties
L-vocalisation	/l/ → vowel in syllable-final position	/l/ retained

Grammatical Features

Feature	AAVE Example	Standard English
Habitual "be"	"He be working" (= he regularly works)	"He usually works"
Zero copula	"She Ø nice"	"She is nice"
Remote past "been"	"She been married" (= she has been married for a long time)	"She has been married (for a long time)"
Negative concord	"I ain't got no money"	"I don't have any money"
Completive "done"	"I done finished"	"I have already finished"

Labov's Defence of AAVE

Labov (1969, 1972) was instrumental in demonstrating that AAVE is a fully systematic linguistic variety, not a deficient form of Standard English. In "The Logic of Nonstandard English," Labov compared the speech of Larry, a young Black speaker of AAVE from Harlem, with that of Charles, a middle-class Black speaker who used Standard English. Labov showed that Larry's arguments — expressed in AAVE — were logically tighter and more directly expressed than Charles's more verbose, standard-form responses.

This work was a direct challenge to Bereiter and Engelmann (1966), who had claimed that Black children's language was "illogical" and represented a form of linguistic deprivation. Labov demonstrated that this view was based on linguistic prejudice and methodological failures (formal interview settings that inhibited natural speech).

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