Why urban teenagers speak the way they do (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

Linguistics
Argot bargy

Why urban teenagers speak the way they do

Nov 2nd 2013 |From the print edition UK

IN HER novel “White Teeth”, published in 2000, Zadie Smith noted that in
London, “all kids, whatever their nationality”, seem to express scorn with
a Jamaican accent. Since then linguistic researchers have gradually come to
understand how and why so many teenagers sound like Dizzee Rascal, a rapper
from Bow in east London (pictured). They call this spreading, mutating
argot Multicultural London English (MLE).

When MLE first emerged, linguists believed it was a ham version of the way
West Indians speak English. In the early 1980s “West Indians who had spoken
Cockney suddenly started to speak differently,” explains Paul Kerswill of
York University. Young Afro-Caribbean men may have adopted a new style of
speech as they sought to forge an identity in an often hostile society.
Others were thought to have copied them.

​Access full article below:
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21588922-why-urban-teenagers-speak-way-they-do-argot-bargy
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