ethnicity

Question 1

2008 Cheshire

Answer 1

MLE is not tied to one ethnic group—it is used by young people of various backgrounds (Black, White, Asian, mixed heritage) growing up in diverse inner-city areas
features of MLE: phonological-dropping ‘h’; replacing ‘th’ with ‘f’/ grammatical- ‘was’ instead of were; man as a pronoun
-MLE was seen as cool and street-smart

Question 2

John Pitts 2012

Answer 2

shift in the speech patterns of some young Black speakers in the UK. Initially, they used British English or code-switched between Standard English and Jamaican Creole (or varieties influenced by it), but increasingly, some began to REJECT STANDARD ENGLISH altogether
-linguistic shift reflects the development of a “resistance identity”.
-Young Black speakers, particularly those who feel marginalised or criminalised by society, may reject mainstream values (including the standard language) and adopt a form of speech that aligns more closely with an oppositional stance.
- linguistic choices are not just about communication, but also about belonging, protest, and identity construction.

Question 3

Jamaican creole to black British English (BBE)

Answer 3

postwar- people from the Caribbean migrated to the UK (Empire Windrush 802 people) 1948

first generation of BBE : creoles, pidgins and local English, spoken in urban centres of the uk

Question 4

ethnolect meaning

Answer 4

lexical and grammatical differences depending on ethnic background

Question 5

BBE meaning

Answer 5

A variation of English spoken by black people

Question 6

pidgins meaning

Answer 6

forms of languages that emerge between speakers of 2 differing languages to facilitate communication

Question 7

creole meaning

Answer 7

pidgin becomes the predominant language in a speech community.

Question 8

code switching meaning

Answer 8

ability to switch between standard English and ethnolects

Question 9

patios

Answer 9

Jamaican patois comes from Jamaica with west African influence

Question 10

Ben Rampton , London 1970s

Answer 10

“creole was widely seen as cool, tough and good to use. It was associated with assertiveness, verbal resourcefulness, competence in heterosexual relationships and opposition to authority”

Rampton distinguishes between:
Code-switching: Used by African Caribbeans, reflecting cultural identity.
Code-crossing: Used by whites, often crossing into a space not originally theirs.

Question 11

Roger Hewitt (1986) and Mark Sebba (1993)

Answer 11

Hewitt identifies four types of conscious white use of Creole:
Competitive – for playful or game-like interaction.
Oppositional – used against authority figures or mainstream culture.
Cultural – to affiliate with Black youth culture.
Interpersonal – within close interracial friendships as a marker of intimacy.