Attitudes towards Multicultural London English in Greater Manchester: how Mancunians approach Multicultural London English

Abstract

[eng] In the last few years a new variety of English has emerged in the city of London which is known as Multicultural London English (MLE) or ‘Jafaican’, due to a large number of its speakers coming from the Caribbean or Africa. This new sociolect has spread to other cities, like Manchester, in part thanks to two music genres, grime and drill, also emerged and developed in the British capital. Multicultural London English has, therefore, brought a number of innovative grammar, lexical, pragmatical and phonological features that are worthy of attention. This paper will then be particularly focused on the analysis of the different MLE features that can be found in grime and drill songs in the past two years and also studies the approach people in Greater Manchester have towards Multicultural London English. The results of this study will show if Multicultural London English has actually spread to speakers in other cities and if it is through grime and drill, they have acquired these features.