Misdemeanor
11th April 2006, 11:57 AM
Cockney loses out to Jafaican
Monday, 10th April 2006, 14:15
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LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - WOULD you Adam and Eve it? A new form of accent is replacing Cockney in its traditional heartland.
White youths are among those speaking in a dialect combining Jamaican, West African and Indian - reflecting population changes in the area.
It means people in some parts of the East End are sounding more like Ali G than Grant Mitchell or Dot Cotton.
Researchers have found white youngsters adopting words from black and Bangladeshi local residents such as "nang" (good) and "creps" (trainers).
Other 'yoofspeak' coming into their vocabulary includes yard (home), yoot (child), blud/ bredren/bruv (mate), low batties (trousers that hang low on the waist) and chat (talk back/ contradict - as in "Don't chat to me!")
Then there are skets (derogatory term for loose girls), bitch (girlfriend), sick (good), jamming (hanging around), begging (chatting rubbish), bare (very, a lot) and nuff (really, very).
So "Rah, das 'nuff nang!" would translate to "Wow, that's really good!"
Linguistics expert Sue Fox, of London University's Queen Mary College said her research with colleagues at Lancaster University is part of the three year London English Project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Up to a hundred adolescents aged 16 to 19 in two boroughs in East London and the Essex area have been interviewed.
Ms Fox said: "What I've actually found with young people is they are using a variety of English which is not traditionally associated with Cockney English.
"Some aspects of the traditional cockney speaking model do exist such as 't-glotalling' - where a word such as butter is pronounced 'bu''er.
"But the language is also being influenced by Jamaican, Asian and west-African English to produce a sound all of its own.
"And it is not white youngsters trying to ape West Indians because they think it is 'cool' - it goes beyond that.
"A lot of white families have moved out of 'cockney' areas into places like Basildon and Harlow and been replaced by people from different ethnic groups.
"The young English people who remain are mixing socially with them and being exposed to a mixture of second-language English and a new variety emerges.
"The local black and Asian accents are also evolving in much the same way as the white one."
Based on their preliminary findings Ms Fox and colleagues are calling it "multicultural London English".
She said: "The adolescents who use this accent are those of second - or third - generation immigrant background followed by whites of London origin.
"Our sample includes teenagers with West Indian, South American, Arab, West African and London backgrounds."
It has a distinctive sound and its vocabulary includes many words lifted straight from Jamaican patois.
Traditional long cockney vowel sounds which make a word like "face" sound like "faice" when spoken are getting shorter - so the new sounds closer to "fehs."
One young girl from outer London told the researchers about her eight year-old cousin who lived in the inner part of the capital.
She said: "People say he speaks like a black boy but he just speaks like a London boy."
Said Ms Fox: "The message is people are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background."
The capital's increasingly multi-racial schools are helping to spread street talk.
But Gary Philips, head of Lilian Baylis in Kennington, south London, said it is not allowed in his classrooms.
He said: "You can speak how you want to friends in the playground - but in the classroom standard English is important because that is what they are being marked for in exams."
Monday, 10th April 2006, 14:15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - WOULD you Adam and Eve it? A new form of accent is replacing Cockney in its traditional heartland.
White youths are among those speaking in a dialect combining Jamaican, West African and Indian - reflecting population changes in the area.
It means people in some parts of the East End are sounding more like Ali G than Grant Mitchell or Dot Cotton.
Researchers have found white youngsters adopting words from black and Bangladeshi local residents such as "nang" (good) and "creps" (trainers).
Other 'yoofspeak' coming into their vocabulary includes yard (home), yoot (child), blud/ bredren/bruv (mate), low batties (trousers that hang low on the waist) and chat (talk back/ contradict - as in "Don't chat to me!")
Then there are skets (derogatory term for loose girls), bitch (girlfriend), sick (good), jamming (hanging around), begging (chatting rubbish), bare (very, a lot) and nuff (really, very).
So "Rah, das 'nuff nang!" would translate to "Wow, that's really good!"
Linguistics expert Sue Fox, of London University's Queen Mary College said her research with colleagues at Lancaster University is part of the three year London English Project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Up to a hundred adolescents aged 16 to 19 in two boroughs in East London and the Essex area have been interviewed.
Ms Fox said: "What I've actually found with young people is they are using a variety of English which is not traditionally associated with Cockney English.
"Some aspects of the traditional cockney speaking model do exist such as 't-glotalling' - where a word such as butter is pronounced 'bu''er.
"But the language is also being influenced by Jamaican, Asian and west-African English to produce a sound all of its own.
"And it is not white youngsters trying to ape West Indians because they think it is 'cool' - it goes beyond that.
"A lot of white families have moved out of 'cockney' areas into places like Basildon and Harlow and been replaced by people from different ethnic groups.
"The young English people who remain are mixing socially with them and being exposed to a mixture of second-language English and a new variety emerges.
"The local black and Asian accents are also evolving in much the same way as the white one."
Based on their preliminary findings Ms Fox and colleagues are calling it "multicultural London English".
She said: "The adolescents who use this accent are those of second - or third - generation immigrant background followed by whites of London origin.
"Our sample includes teenagers with West Indian, South American, Arab, West African and London backgrounds."
It has a distinctive sound and its vocabulary includes many words lifted straight from Jamaican patois.
Traditional long cockney vowel sounds which make a word like "face" sound like "faice" when spoken are getting shorter - so the new sounds closer to "fehs."
One young girl from outer London told the researchers about her eight year-old cousin who lived in the inner part of the capital.
She said: "People say he speaks like a black boy but he just speaks like a London boy."
Said Ms Fox: "The message is people are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background."
The capital's increasingly multi-racial schools are helping to spread street talk.
But Gary Philips, head of Lilian Baylis in Kennington, south London, said it is not allowed in his classrooms.
He said: "You can speak how you want to friends in the playground - but in the classroom standard English is important because that is what they are being marked for in exams."