評論
打印
Linguistics
語言學
Argot bargy
方言來襲
Why urban teenagers speak the way they do
城里的年輕人為什么那樣說話
Nov 2nd 2013 |From the print edition
You think my accent’s bonkers. Your kids speak like me
你覺得我的口音弱爆了。但是你家孩子跟我一個德行。
IN HER novel “White Teeth”, published in 2000, Zadie Smith noted that in London, “all kids, whatever their nationality”, seem to express scorn with a Jamaican accent. Since then linguistic researchers have gradually come to understand how and why so many teenagers sound like Dizzee Rascal, a rapper from Bow in east London (pictured). They call this spreading, mutating argot Multicultural London English (MLE).
扎迪史密斯在2000年發(fā)表過一部小說，名字叫《白牙》，在書中，她提到在倫敦，所有的孩子，不管他們來自哪里，似乎用牙買加口音表達自己的鄙視。從那時起，語言學研究者逐漸明白了如何以及為何那么多青少年口音聽起來像來自東倫敦區(qū)說唱歌手迪茲瑞克斯（如圖）了。研究者稱這種正在蔓延以及變異的語言為多文化倫敦英語（MLE）。
When MLE first emerged, linguists believed it was a ham version of the way West Indians speak English. In the early 1980s “West Indians who had spoken Cockney suddenly started to speak differently,” explains Paul Kerswill of York University. Young Afro-Caribbean men may have adopted a new style of speech as they sought to forge an identity in an often hostile society. Others were thought to have copied them.
MLE首次出現(xiàn)的時候，語言學家認為這是西印度群島人群講英語的一種蹩腳方式。約克大學的保羅克蘇威爾解釋道，在上世紀80年代初，講倫敦口音的西印度群島人群突然開始講不一樣的口音了。年輕的加勒比黑人可能已經(jīng)接受了一種新的口音，因為他們試圖在一個充滿歧視的社會里獲得一種認可。其他人則被認為是在模仿他們。
But far from being cod-Jamaican, MLE is now thought to be a hybrid dialect that emerged from the intermingling of West Indians, South Asians and speakers of Cockney and Estuary English. Though much of the slang is West Indian—from “bare” for “very” to “sick” meaning “good”—the pronunciation is often not. Its chief characteristic, an elongated “ah” sound in place of an “i” so that “l(fā)ike” is pronounced “l(fā)ahke”, does not imitate a West Indian patois.
但這絕不是牙買加人專屬，MLE現(xiàn)在被認為是由西印度群島口音，南亞裔口音和倫敦以及河灣區(qū)口音混合的方言。盡管大部分是西印度群島俚語，比如說‘bare’等同于‘very’，還有‘sick’等同于‘good’，發(fā)音往往也不一樣。MLE的主要特點是‘i’的發(fā)音像‘a(chǎn)h’，因此，‘like’聽起來像‘lahke’，這一特征就不是效仿西印度群島口音。
Researchers have found that MLE alters from place to place. Variants have emerged in other cities with many immigrants, such as Birmingham and Manchester. Children tend to pick up MLE at secondary school. It is more common—and more strongly accented—among boys than among girls. The grammar that tends to accompany MLE is increasingly uniform: for example the use of "we wasn't" in place of "we weren't".
研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)英國到處都有MLE的蹤跡。其他城市的許多移民也出現(xiàn)了變種，比如伯明翰和曼城。孩子們一般是在初中開始接觸MLE。這種口音在男孩之間更加普遍，口音也更明顯。同時MLE的語法也正在變的規(guī)范起來，例如"we weren't"代替了"we wasn't"。
Linguists are most excited by what MLE is doing to the rhythm of speech. English is usually spoken with a stress-timed rhythm, in which syllables are stressed at regular intervals. Speakers of MLE speak with a syllable-timed rhythm, in which all syllables are accorded roughly the same time and stress, as in French or Japanese. Syllable-timed speech is a characteristic of languages that have come into contact with other languages. Versions of it may have existed in multicultural places such as Hackney for centuries, thinks Mr Kerswill.
語言學家對MLE對語調(diào)帶來的變化更感興趣。英語一般是由重音引導的，就是音節(jié)按照時間規(guī)律重讀。MLE的使用者則按照音節(jié)停頓，所有音節(jié)的語調(diào)基本一致，跟法語和日語大致相同。和其他語言相比，按音節(jié)停頓是其特點。這種語音特色可能已經(jīng)在諸如哈克尼這種多元文化區(qū)存在數(shù)個世紀了。
Helped along by the exodus of old-fashioned Cockney speakers to London’s suburbs and commuter towns, MLE is replacing London’s traditional vernacular. That worries some. Caroline Goyder, a former teacher who now coaches politicians and lawyers in the art of public speaking, says she sees increasing numbers of school leavers who fear they are incomprehensible in job interviews. For one young Cambridge graduate working in Paris, that rings true. His MLE accent is proving as much of a problem as his imperfect French. “I know it’s incongruous”, he says, “but it’s hard to lose, y’get me?”
隨著操倫敦口音的居民搬到郊區(qū)以及周邊通勤城鎮(zhèn)，MLE正在取代當?shù)氐膫鹘y(tǒng)語言。這讓一些人感到擔憂。曾任教師的卡洛琳葛依德現(xiàn)在是一名政客律師演講指導教練，她表示她看到很多畢業(yè)生害怕在工作面試中不能被理解。對一個在巴黎工作的劍橋畢業(yè)生來說，這是真的。他的MLE口音跟他磕磕絆絆的法語一樣。他說，我知道這不對，但是很難改，你懂嗎？
