In Northern Europe's major cities, new varieties of the host languages are emerging in the multilingual inner cities. While some analyse these 'multiethnolects' as youth styles, we take a variationist approach to an emerging 'Multicultural London English' (MLE), asking: (1) what features characterise MLE? (2) at what age(s) are they acquired? (3) is MLE vernacularised? (4) when did MLE emerge, and what factors enabled its emergence? We argue that innovations in the diphthongs and the quotative system are generated from the specific sociolinguistics of inner-city London, where at least half the population is undergoing group second-language acquisition and where high linguistic diversity leads to a feature pool to select from. We look for incrementation (Labov) in the acquisition of the features, but find this only for two 'global' changes, BE LIKE and GOOSE-fronting, for which adolescents show the highest usage. Community-internal factors explain the age-related variation in the remaining features.Key words: multiethnolects, youth language, language contact, new dialect formation, London English Running title: Multicultural London English Dans certaines villes importantes de l'Europe de Nord, on observe l'émergence de nouvelles variétés de la langue hôte dans les quartiers multilingues. Tandis que certains ont analysé ces variétés « multiethniques » comme appartenant au langage des jeunes, nous adoptons ici une approche variationniste pour analyser une telle variété émergente à Londres, que nous appelons « Multicultural London English » (MLE), en nous posant les questions suivantes : (1) quels traits structuraux caractérisent le MLE ?; (2) à quel(s) âge(s) sont-ils acquis ?; (3) le MLE est-il « vernacularisé » ?; (4) à quel moment le MLE est-il apparu/a-t-il vu le jour, et quels facteurs lui ont permis à émerger? Nous soutenons que les innovations dans les diphtongues et le système du discours rapporté résultent de la situation sociolinguistique spécifique des quartiers multilingues et déshérités de Londres, où au moins 50 pour cent de la population acquiert l'anglais comme langue seconde « au sauvage » avec des amis, et où la grande diversité linguistique entraîne un réservoir de traits linguistiques (« feature pool ») hétérogène. En ce qui concerne l'acquisition des traits, nous ne trouvons le phénomène labovien d'incrémentation que pour deux changements globaux (BE LIKE et l'avancement de la voyelle en GOOSE), ces deux formes nouvelles étant les plus fréquentes chez les adolescents. Pour les autres traits linguistiques, la variation selon l'âge des locuteurs s'explique plutôt par des facteurs internes à la communauté.Page 3 of 64 1. New language varieties in the inner city: language contact and group second-language acquisition In a number of European cities, the latter part of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of new, distinct varieties of the host languages in multilingual, working-class neighbourhoods. A considerable amount of research in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany an...

This article is a contribution to the debate about the primacy of internal versus external factors in language change (Farrar and Jones 2002;Thomason and Kaufman 1988). Taking Labov's Principles of Vowel Shifting (Labov 1994) as representing internal factors, we examine avowel shift in Ashford, south-east of London. F1and F2 measurements of the short vowels suggest a classic chain shift, largely following Labov's Principles II and III (though Labov's assumption that London short front vowels are rising is shown to be wrong). However, corresponding data from Reading, west of London, evidence no signs of a chain shift. The two datasets show identical targets for the changes in each town. Thus, there has been convergence between the two short vowel systems^from di¡erent starting points.We argue that a dialect contact model is more explanatory than internal factors in this case of regional dialect levelling in the south-east of England.

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A B S T R A C TThis study contributes to innovation and diffusion models by examining phonetic changes in London English. It evaluates Sapir's notion of "drift," which involves "natural," unconscious change, in relation to these changes. Investigating parallel developments in two related varieties of English enables drift to be tested in terms of the effect of extralinguistic factors. The diphthongs of PRICE, MOUTH, FACE, and GOAT in both London and New Zealand English are characterized by "Diphthong Shift," a process that continued unabated in New Zealand. A new, large data set of London speech shows Diphthong Shift reversal, providing counterevidence for drift. We discuss Diphthong Shift and its "reversal" in relation to innovation, diffusion, leveling, and supralocalization, arguing that sociolinguistic factors and dialect contact override natural Diphthong Shift. Studying dialect change in a metropolis, with its large and linguistically innovative minority ethnic population, is of the utmost importance in understanding the dynamics of change.This article is about vowel changes, specifically changes in diphthongs in London English. We will discuss what forces might be at work when an established, purportedly universal or natural phonetic change seems to have been halted and is, in fact, reversing. Reversals of apparently completed changes are reported for mergers; however, mergers are the phonological consequence of phonetic changes, not the process that may have led to this consequence. Prime examples of such processes are vocalic chain shifts (Hock, 1986:156-158, 637-639;Labov, 1994), which are held to be subject to functional (Meillet, 1967:104-105) and psychoacoustic (Lindblom, 1986) constraints, leading to the maintenance of phonetic distance between phonological units and an apparent striving forWe are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council for funding the project Linguistic Innovators: The English of Adolescents in London (Ref. RES-000-23-0680), of which the work reported here forms a part. We also thank three reviewers for many helpful comments and suggestions.

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Communicative adequacy is a key construct in second language research, as the primary goal of most language learners is to communicate successfully in real-world situations. Nevertheless, little is known about what linguistic features contribute to communicatively adequate speech. This study fills this gap by investigating the extent to which complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) predict adequacy; and whether proficiency and task type moderate these relationships. Twenty native speakers and 80 second language users from four proficiency levels performed five tasks. Speech samples were rated for adequacy and coded for a range of complexity, accuracy, and fluency indices. Filled pause frequency, a feature of breakdown fluency, emerged as the strongest predictor of adequacy. Predictors with significant but smaller effects included indices of all three CAF dimensions: linguistic complexity (lexical diversity, overall syntactic complexity, syntactic complexity by subordination, frequency of conjoined clauses), accuracy (general accuracy, accuracy of connectors), and fluency (silent pause frequency, speed fluency). For advanced speakers, incidence of false starts also emerged as predicting communicatively adequate speech. Task type did not influence the link between linguistic features and adequacy.

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This article reports the results of a school-based curriculum development project that aimed to support language teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in Norway to develop teaching strategies that foster intercultural citizenship and multilingual competence. Three university researchers collaborated with two schools to increase mutual respect and tolerance for cultural and linguistic diversity in language classrooms, to increase awareness of the positive impact of home language maintenance on academic performance, and to improve the engagement of multilingual literacy and student identity in the classroom. Data were collected during teacher workshops and while following the delivery of the project, and consist of lesson planning materials, texts produced by students, and a follow-up teacher survey. The article presents examples of activities and materials the teachers at the cooperating schools designed and implemented, samples of student work, as well as teacher reflections on the extent to which the project promoted multiliteracy and intercultural citizenship. The findings suggest that while the project helped strengthen awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity at the schools, understanding of the relevance of the home language to literacy development and academic success and multiliteracy were not adequately supported. Implications for future work to promote language classrooms that foster linguistic and cultural diversity and multiliteracy are discussed.