MLE Dialect

MLE – Multicultural London English

 

Multicultural London English, or Jafaican, is an increasingly popular dialect that has taken over in inner city areas of London, however is becoming more frequent in youth everywhere due to internal and external influences such as the media.

It seems that most of the terms or words within this dialect all have a much broader meaning than traditional English, which could makes it easier for people to speak, having to use less words, however this would mean that you can only use expression to transmit what we actually mean. For example, the word 'Dash', meaning to pass someone something, but in the broadest sense, therefore it can mean anything from passing something gently to violently throwing something to someone.

Then there are also new phrases being introduced, for example if someone is becoming over-worked or stressed there is the verb 'flat-roofin', as in 'I've been flat-roofin for this job.'

 

In MLE, sentences are structured differently to traditional English, which some might argue to be improper grammar. For example 'I got bare mandem.' 'Bare;' a word which in traditional English means naked, plain or nothing, in MLE means 'lots of', which is contradictory to it's original definition, therefore this is an example of drift, but also amelioration. Much like the phrase 'Allow it', in MLE means 'stop it,' this would be drift, however also pejoration. Then we have 'Mandem;' several men who are in your friend group, adjacent to 'Gyaldem,' several women in a friendship group. As the sentence; 'I got bare mandem', could be translated as 'I have a lot of friends,' you could also say 'I have got a lot of friends,' either of these sentences being present continuous. However, in MLE the verb 'have', has been removed completely and all that is left is the past tense verb 'got'. This means the sentence is still acting as present continuous, however using a past tense verb makes it incorrect grammar, however it is still used and understood this way. This would make 'bare' the determiner, and 'mandem' an irregular plural noun.

 

In MLE, amelioration happens with several phrases that appear to be linked with negative connotations, but are actually meant to be positive. For example if someone were to be described as a 'bad-man', or a 'rude-boy' it would actually mean that they are rebellious and therefore cool. So it becomes a term that people want to be branded with. However, there are still phrases that appear to have negative connotations that are still meant to be insulting, such as 'waste-man'. As we know the word 'waste' meaning something that is no good to anyone, still keeps the same definition, therefore the term 'waste-man' plainly means someone who is no good to anyone.

 

The greeting 'Wagwan', with Jamaican origin, is merely a contraction of 'what's going on?' There are also words in MLE taken from other dialects, such as 'Marvin', meaning hungry, comes from London rhyming slang; 'Starvin Marvin'. Therefore it seems that MLE is made up of words we already know and use but with changed definitions, or words taken from other dialects and languages.

Millie Watson.