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The old Twitter account has been deleted (because of both the ennazification and enshittification of that site) so is now running on Bluesky here. 

Black British English vs MLE

The latest episode of Lexis is out and it features an interview with Ife Thompson about lots of issues connected to Black British English, including linguistic justice, anti-Black discourses in stories about language in the media, plus how Back British English is treated in schools and the courts. 

She takes a very different view to many linguists on the language variety/style/multiethnolect that's been called MLE and argues that actually it should be termed Black British English. There's a lot to think about, not least because linguistics is still a very white field and the language being discussed is commonly used by Black speakers (among others). 

Have a listen here and see what you think. It would be interesting to compare what Ife says with what Paul Kerswill talked about in this episode and to cross reference some of her points about the coverage of MLE/BBE with these media stories. 

Language and videogaming

If you haven't already come across it, the latest episode of our Lexis podcast features an interview with Frazer Heritage from Manchester Met on the representation of gender in videogames (among many other things). 

You can find it here. 

We also talked to Heidi Colthup at the University of Kent, back in early 2023, about her work on video gaming and narrative. That episode is here. 

New Directions

 It's here! A new *free* resource from the English and Media Centre and University of Essex. 

You can find it here. 

BDE: Big Dictionary Energy

It's Word of the Year season again and 'tis the season to be rizzy, apparently. Here are all the stories that I could find about #WOTY2023 so far. One of the big beasts, the American Dialect Society, is yet to decide on theirs but all the others are accounted for. 

News stories about WOTY2023

‘AI’ named most notable word of 2023 by Collins dictionary | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

AI named word of the year by Collins Dictionary - BBC News 

Rizz named word of the year 2023 by Oxford University Press - BBC News 

Got rizz? Tom Holland memes propel popularity of 2023 word of the year | Social trends | The Guardian 

Dictionary.com’s 2023 Word Of The Year Is…

The Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year 2023

The Collins Word of the Year 2023 is…

Oxford Word of the Year 2023

Word of the Year 2023 | Authentic | Merriam-Webster

Macquarie Dictionary Blog

Cozzie livs: light-hearted term for cost-of-living crisis named Macquarie dictionary word of the year | Language | The Guardian 

» Nominate the 2023 Words of the Year American Dialect Society  

Japan chooses ‘tax’ as kanji of the year amid concern over cost of living   

Opinion pieces about new words

The Collins word of the year shortlist shows we’re more self-obsessed than ever

Hallucinating AIs and What The Words Of The Year Lists Reveal About our Modern World 

Rizz: I study the history of charisma – here's why the word of the year is misunderstood

Thread on Twitter responding to the ‘manosphere’ links:

Who's got 'the rizz'? Apparently, just men

I get the need for ‘rizz’, but ‘influencer’ should be banned for ever

MLE media links

In our New Directions: Language Diversity research and resource pack, we have set up an activity that asks students to research different media articles about MLE. Below you will find the media stories about MLE that have been covered in 2016, 2022 and 2023. 

2016

Queen's English to be WIPED OUT from London 'due to high levels of immigration' (Daily Express)

Laziness is killing the magnificent English language, says James Delingpole (Daily Express)

'Th' sound to vanish from English language by 2066 because of multiculturalism, say linguists  (Daily Telegraph) 

MUVVER TONGUE ‘Th’ sound vanishing from English language with Cockney and other dialects set to ‘die out by 2066 because of immigration’  (The Sun)

It's the end of the frog and toad for regional slang, says report. Sounds of 2066 report says ‘talking to machines and listening to Americans’ will kill off British accents and slang in the future. (The Guardian)

The Daily Mail initially led with the headline "Is immigration killing off the Queen's English?" before changing it to the more neutral “What do you fink of dis? The 'th' sound will disappear from speech within 50 years as urban dialects spread.” (Daily Mail)

2022

Wagwan? Street Slang to be Britain's main dialect (The Telegraph)

Wagwan? Why are more and more Britons speaking Multicultural London English (The Guardian)

Wagwan with our beautiful language? (Daily Mail)

Britain would be dull if my London accent wipes out all of the others (The London Evening Standard)

The Multicultural London English dialect is 40 years old but middle class Britain is still terrified (i news)

2023

Cockney and Queen's English have all but disappeared among young people – here's what's replaced them (The Conversation)

King’s English and Cockney replaced by three new accents, study finds (The Telegraph)

Cockney and King's English becoming less common, researchers find (BBC News)

Language barrier: why even Harry has stopped speaking the king’s English (The Guardian)

The south's three new twangs: Study finds dialects SSBE, Estuary English and multicultural London English are becoming increasingly popular among young people (Mail Online)

Useful links for Eng Lang students (and teachers)

I've not updated the links on here for a while but I'll get round to that soon as there are some really excellent resources available for the A level now and more on the way. 

One great resource that I would recommend is Heddwen Newton's English in Progress Substack, which you can find here. Heddwen curates a regular newsletter full of links to interesting stories about language, many of which are perfect for the A level course. We spoke to Heddwen in the second half of this episode of Lexis too so have a listen!

Social media links: new Bluesky account up and running

With Twitter (X... lol) going down the pan, I've set up a Bluesky account for @EngLangBlog so you can access that here if you're on that app. It seems to be growing nicely with more and more linguists on there, so I have some hope that it will be a useful resource. In the meantime, the Twitter account will stay posting but I'll be cross posting everything there to Bluesky.