Category: BBC; bbc.co.uk
Date: 22.08.2005
Printable version
Popular TV shows about East London might need to rethink the accents of their characters after new research revealed by the BBC Voices project shows that the cockney accent is dying out in parts of the East End.
Speaking in an exclusive interview for BBC Voices, Sue
Fox, a sociolinguist at the Queen Mary College, University
of London, says a new dialect is emerging to replace cockney and that
it's a mixture between English and Bangladeshi.
She says the new variety of speech - particularly vowel pronunciation - sounds closer to Received Pronunciation (Queen's English) than traditional cockney.
Other experts suggest that the phenomenon is repeating itself elsewhere in cities across the UK.
Fox's findings are the result of her research into the way that cockney is being influenced by the speech of Bangladeshi and other communities in Tower Hamlets.
In the interview with the BBC, Fox says: "This
is very exciting for linguists - the language of London is changing.
"The majority of young people of school age are of Bangladeshi origin and this has had tremendous impact on the dialect spoken in the area.
"What I've actually found with the young people in Tower Hamlets is that they are using a variety of English which is not traditionally associated with cockney English - it's a variety that we might say is Bangladeshi-accented.
"And in turn what I've found is that some adolescents of white British origin are also using these features in their speech as well."
Fox told BBC Voices the new variety of speech includes words such as 'nang' meaning good, 'creps' for trainers and 'skets' for slippers - and that the more mixed and integrated an area is, the more the new accent was likely to be heard.
But the cockney accent isn't disappearing altogether - Dr Laura Wright, senior lecturer in English Language at the University of Cambridge, says the famous accent is moving to other towns and boroughs around the outskirts of London.
She says: "Long-standing East End communities were very much disrupted after the Second World War, partly due to bomb damage, partly due to slum clearance, and many inhabitants were transferred out of London to the newly-built new towns, such as Basildon and Harlow.
"Of course when the East Enders resettled they took their speech with them, and they and their descendants continue to speak in East London dialect with East London accents - although this has changed over the intervening half century, as language is continually changing, and so such speakers today would not sound identical to their East End antecedents."
Professor David Crystal, a consultant to BBC Voices, says the phenomenon is repeating itself in cities across the UK.
He says: "Over the last 50 years or so, we have
seen an increasing cultural diversification across the country. Accents
are a reflection of society and as society changes so accents change.
"We need to look for accent change where society is evolving and this means that we are seeing far more urban accents in places such as Liverpool and Cardiff than ever before.
"For example, in Liverpool, as well as the traditional
Scouse accent, you will hear distinct Caribbean-Scouse and African-Scouse
as well as Indian-Scouse accents.
"In Cardiff I've heard a number of accent mixes
that weren't previously heard before, such as Cardiff-Arabic and Cardiff-Hindi.
"This pattern is repeating itself in many urban communities across the UK, especially where people are keen to develop a strong sense of local identity."
Mick Ord, BBC Voices Project Director, adds: "It
is fascinating to discover how much the 'Tower Hamlets effect' is happening
in other parts of the UK.
"The only language that doesn't change is a dead language - the English language is changing all the time and no more so than today with new influences and young people of many ethnic backgrounds mixing together in our inner cities.
"It's an exciting time for the English language and to celebrate our language, accents and dialects, BBC Voices is looking at the way we speak all this week on BBC radio, TV and online."
Notes to Editors
Voices is a week of BBC programmes on national and local radio to celebrate the way people speak around the UK in the 21st century. It runs until 28 August.
For more about Voices - and to hear audio clips - visit bbc.co.uk/voices.
Sue Fox's research, which took nine months to complete, was carried out among adolescents at a youth club in Tower Hamlets and included a wide range of nationalities.
Whilst young white people in the area - particularly young men - have already started to use words from their Bangladeshi friends, Fox's research shows that the influence is less strong amongst white teenage girls.
Professor David Crystal is one of the world's leading experts on English Language.
