LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 14.MAR.2000 (02) [E]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 14.MAR.2000 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

Jason asked:

>Are there emerging UK/other dialects/accents, as in the American
>'Ebonics' ?

>Dare I ask the next question?  I was recently watching a TV program and
>heard the term, "Sweed basher" as an insult or nickname or something?
>Could someone tell me what that means?<

A "swede basher" (note the minuscule "s") is a yokel or country bumpkin, not
someone with a grievance against Scandinavians. ("Swede", short for "Swedish
turnip", is the vegetable Americans call "rutabaga".) It's derogatory.

As for emerging UK dialects, we have "Estuary English". The reference is to
the Thames Estuary. It is fundamentally a matter of accent. The
sociologically interesting thing is that a "common" accent has spread up the
social scale, especially in the young/smart/media world.

Separate from this is something I've commented on before - a sound-shift
which affects sounds related to "O". The word "cool" in the sense of "good",
"admirable" is almost universally pronounced "coal" by young people. The TV
channel "BBC 2" has become, in the mouths of many of its continuity
announcers, "Beebsea toe", with slight diphthongisation of "toe" [t at o].

On the question of Jamaican, London Jamaican is the koine widely spoken by
Afro-Caribbeans originating from places in the (former) British West Indies
with different dialects of English.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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