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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.