Hybrid forms and Multicultural London English

British Black English combines elements of Standard British English with Patois forms. BBE varies from region to region, reflecting the local varieties spoken in places such as Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol. For example, Cheshire et al (2008) identified a new form of English emerging (predominately among young people) in inner London (MLE).

MLE does not have a uniform set of features by its speakers. It is a pool of language characteristics adopted to differing degrees by its users depending on age, ethnicity, region and identity. MLE is more than slang although elements of its vocabulary are slang terms and have moved into wider use:

• Vocabulary: ‘bare’ (a lot/very), ‘beef’ (disagreement, conflict), ‘choong’ (attractive), ‘ting’ (girlfriend or thing), ‘endz’ (local area), ‘on road’ (on the streets)

• Phonology: most noticeably the dipthong vowel sounds of words such as ‘face’ and ‘like’ are pronounced /fes/

• Grammar: use of ‘dem’ as a plural marker (as in ‘mandem’ for ‘men’ or ‘boydem’ for police - perhaps derived from ‘the boys in blue’) and ‘man’ as a new pronoun referring to oneself (as in ‘man paid for my own ticket’) are broader grammatical differences in MLE

• Discourse features ‘innit’ as a tag question, ‘you get me’ as a confirmation check; ‘this is me’ as a quotative (as in ‘I went over to his place and this is me ‘‘what you doing?’’ and this is him ‘‘not a lot, just playing XBOX’’)

MLE is quite different from previous contact languages in the UK, because the numbers are very different and, for perhaps the first time, the influence of the native languages is not as strong as the force of second languages - meaning the process of Anglicization is less noticeable - instead a form of convergence is taking place between a number of different influences and creating a genuine and organic hybrid form of English. For those dismissing it is as ‘Jafrican’, it should be clear that there is nothing fake and only a touch of Jamaican about it.