Dialect levelling is dead: innovation in inner-London teenage speech

1. Dialect levelling is dead: innovation in inner-London teenage speech NUS, Dept of English Language & Literature, Friday 9th March 2007 Paul Kerswill†, Eivind Torgersen† and Sue Fox‡†Lancaster University, ‡Queen Mary, University of London

2. Linguisticinnovators: the English of adolescents in London, 2004–7 Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox (Queen Mary, University of London) Paul Kerswill, Eivind Torgersen (Lancaster University) www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/projects/linguistics/innovators/index.htm

3. Project design • 16 elderly Londoners • 105 17 year old Londoners • from inner and outer boroughs • female, male • “Anglo” and “Non-Anglo” • Free interviews in pairs • 1.1m words transcribed

4. Havering Hackney

5. London and three “London periphery” towns

6. Findings from south-east England (“London periphery”)

7. Reduced H-dropping in London periphery

8. TH-fronting in three towns

9. Possible explanations for changes • Innovation • endogenous: from within the community • Diffusion • from centre to periphery: directional • exogenous change (contact-induced) • Levelling (or supralocalisation) • Changes affect a whole region at once, with no directionality • again, exogenous change (contact-induced)

10. H-dropping young speakers in London Hackney 9% Havering 32%

11. H-dropping - summary Percent ‘dropped’ H in lexical words (interviews)

12. H-dropping in Hackney Anglo 16% Non-Anglo 4%

13. H-dropping in Havering Anglo 40% Non-Anglo 9%

14. K-backing young speakers in London Hackney 67% Havering 51%

15. Monophthongs in Hackney: Elderly and young Elderly speakers (purple), Non-Anglo speakers (black), Anglo speakers (red)

16. Groups of young speakers in Hackney Elderly speakers (purple), Non-Anglo speakers (black), Anglo speakers with Non-Anglo network (blue), Anglo speakers with Anglo network (green)

17. Monophthongs in Hackney and Havering: the extremes Non-Anglo Youth, Hackney Anglos Youth, Havering æ æ

18. Working-class white Londonerborn 1938 GOAT CHOICE FACE PRICE MOUTH START TRAP STRUT

19. Young speakers in Hackney Laura, Anglo Alan, Kuwait Grace, Nigeria Jack, Anglo

20. Young Havering Anglo speakers Donna Ian

21. Three examples of contemporary Southeastern English

22. 1. Traditional London ‘Cockney’ Richard, a retired docker in London, talking about how everybody had to pull their weight, or else everybody’s wages would go down.

23. 2. ‘Levelled’ Southeastern speech – the New Town of Milton Keynes

24. Sue and Melissa, Milton Keynes. Born 1979, recorded 1992 S, M and AW (fieldworker), discussing smoking S: It’s bad though isn’t it taking drugs. M: I know. AW: I’m sure people do. I know people who do M: yeah. I’m sure people- I bet like there’s loads of people in this school that takes drugs, but S: Yes, they’ll only kill theirselves M: Yeah, tha- that’s their problem. AW: It’s better not to if you can manage [...] M: My mum and dad- cos me an- me and my brother, Ian, have been nagging my mum and dad because they smoke and (.) we don’t like it because like we’re passive smokers and then- it- it’s just frightening cos you think, oh, they might die sooner and stuff like that, so- S: mm M: they’ve started to give- they’ve given up two weeks yesterday, so- AW: Very good. Good for you. S: My-my mum and dad used to smoke but only at parties and that AW: yeah S: but now they don’t smoke at all, cos they- they found out how bad it was. My granddad used to smoke about a hundred a day, but he’s had about (.) five heart attacks and that AW: mm S: so he- he gave up about five years ago when he moved down to Coffee Hall AW: mm

25. 3. ‘Multicultural London English’ – London’s inner city

26. Sue: mm and you'd know everyone in there then did you? Brian: yeah not like everyone but yeah [Sue: but most of them] yeah [Sue: yeah mm] .. yeah well the shuv the other day like it was what friday yeah? . like one girl round my ends . yeah it's like she was . having a shuv it was her birthday . and it was a invitation thing . so . like we went . like Springfield went there . and it like we went there kind of late . like it started at nine .. it finished at three . like we went I don't know we went there at about eleven . and then . so . we went in . gave the invitations cos it was invitation only and we thought that like we would be the only boys there . and like we saw bare man there . and then so we would thinking like we don't know none of these boys . and like . they was all like screwing . like putting on their screw faces and all that so . we phoned like some . couple . mandem . like from [Sue: who?] . like a couple ends yeah? . [Sue: mm] like areas around . just they come like they’re some dodgy boys . there so . we call them . and then . like so there was about .. like . say like some . heads come how many about . say fifty . heads came . and so there was like more of us now yeah . there was about forty mandem like boys inside . so we went . yeah they came . and like there was like a security at the door . so . like . no one had invitation the people that we called . so . yeah so . like the everyone ran in . and so like the er security stopped the music and like turned on the lights . said that that everyone get out . so they scattered the shuv . so they like there was food and all that they was throwing over the tables .. yeah like foot we he smashed the you know the alarm thing? and you have to smash it for emergencies yeah they smashed that . and no reason and then so everyone had to come outside . and . like we saw them dodgy boys .. and so we went . we went to them and said "what ends are you from?" . they said "south" . but they was there all together we thought they was all together so there was even less of them . they said from south . and then . then . like . like someone tried to take his phone . and then he tried to switch . say "what are you doing blood?" like and then one one of them . boys . from round square yeah they . had a mash yeah? . you know what mash is yeah? and then . they cocked it back . and then he started running . and then

27. Innovation, diffusion and levelling revisited Loss of H-dropping • London matches London Periphery in loss of h-dropping • But unexpected match between inner-city non-Anglos and high-contact Periphery Anglos (Milton Keynes – New Town) • Same feature – different social embedding TH-fronting • Young Londoners have almost universal TH-fronting • The feature is so advanced that comparisons are no longer useful

28. K-backing • More in inner London than in outer London • but not, apparently, linked to ethnicity

29. GOAT-fronting • Prevalent among Periphery speakers • Absent in most London speakers, present in outer-city girls • Instead, GOAT-monophthongisation • highly correlated with ethnicity (Afro-Caribbean, Black African) and multi-ethnic network (for Anglos) PRICE • More fronted than Periphery • Fronting and monophthongisation correlated with ethnicity

30. Monophthongisation of FACE, PRICE and GOAT is correlated with four interacting scales: • 1. Non-Anglo > Anglo • 2. Non-Anglo network > Anglo network • 3. Male > female • 4. Inner London > outer London > London periphery (Milton Keynes, Reading, Ashford) • These innovatory monophthongs are centred on the inner city. They are rare outside.

31. Fronting of GOOSE • Advanced in London, matching Periphery • Unexpectedly, most advanced among non-Anglo inner-city Londoners and Anglos with non-Anglo networks • As with loss of H-dropping, the same feature has different social embedding in inner London and Periphery Fronting of FOOT • Less advanced in London than in Periphery • In London, more advanced among Anglos, in line with the Anglos in the Periphery

32. Conclusions Each variable has its own history and trajectory: • Loss of H-dropping • In Periphery, possibly influenced by standardisation and high mobility • In London, possibly a result of high contact with L2 varieties of English • K-backing: motivations still to be tested

33. GOAT • Fronting: a result of levelling in the periphery • Monophthongisation: a result of (endogenous) innovation in the inner city, resulting from contact with British Caribbean English and L2 Englishes

34. GOOSE-fronting • Levelling in Periphery • Extreme fronting among inner city non-Anglos is innovatory • FOOT-fronting • Levelling in Periphery • Lack of fronting in inner city is conservative, matching Caribbean Englishes

35. A change model for London and the south-east A change model for London and the south-east needs to include • Innovation • Diffusion • Levelling • Importance of ethnicity in generating change in modern inner-cities