It’s Proper English, Innit?

A. J. Dalton (amended by Jon Porter)

You can study the English language for years and still not understand a native speaker of English when you meet one. Many language learners know that native speakers say a lot of things that you cant find in a dictionary. Well， heres a secret for you： a lot of British people cant understand each other either！

There are different regional accents across the UK， and a number of regions have several different dialects—that is， they have their own unique vocabulary and grammatical phrases. There are many different accents indigenous to London， because it is not just where a person is born in the UK that decides their accent. Language and accents also vary across class and level of education. Hence the recent rise of a new accent coined at the end of the 20th century， ‘Multicultural London English. Other factors are also important in the invention of new accents and ways of speaking. These include the influence of people from different ethnic backgrounds and different age groups， too.

Yoof culture

The word ‘yoof is a slang spelling of ‘youth. Some people consider ‘yoof to be a negative term， since its pronunciation is easier and lazier than ‘youth. Other people see the term as positive， because it describes how young people are creating their own language， concepts and identity. By using words that their parents dont understand， children can talk about things that their parents might not approve of. In this way， young people are starting to find freedom， independence and self-expression. They are creating a ‘yoof culture. It is not possible to come up with a complete list of words used by yoof. By the time the list was completed， it would be out of date. New words come and go like fashions. They are fashions. However， a few features of the yoof style of language are as follows：

■ instead of saying something like ‘Thats good！ or ‘I understand， yoof will use a single adjective like ‘Safe！， ‘Sorted！， ‘Sound！， ‘Cool！ or ‘Sick！

■ instead of ‘She then said no！， yoof will say ‘She was like， no！

■ instead of ‘. . . if you understand what Im saying， yoof will say ‘kind-a-thing or ‘sort-a-thing

■ instead of ‘think， ‘the， ‘that， ‘what and ‘because， yoof will say ‘fink， ‘da， ‘dat， ‘wot and ‘coz

■ instead of ‘Shes attractive！， yoof will say ‘Shes fine！ or ‘Shes fit！

■ instead of using a variety of tag questions like ‘…， isnt it？， ‘…， cant you？ or ‘…， dont they？， yoof will use the all-purpose ‘innit （e.g. ‘Its hot， innit！， ‘You can dance really well， innit！ or ‘They always say that， innit！）

■ instead of using ‘very or ‘really， yoof will use ‘well （e.g. ‘Im well tired or ‘You got it well wrong！）

■ instead of ‘I dont care！， yoof will say ‘Whatever！

New social and political language

Certain groups of society feel threatened by ‘yoof culture or by the British working classes having more social freedom. As a result， a negative term now commonly used in the UK is ‘chav. It is an insult and is meant to describe someone who is uneducated and anti-social （e.g. ‘Hes a chav！）. A young person who wears a jacket with a hood—after all， it is often cold and rains a lot in the UK—is sometimes called a ‘hoodie. It is a negative term again and suggests that the young person is interested in committing a crime.

Where does that leave us？

Learners of English often feel that the best test of their English is how well they can talk to a native speaker， but perhaps they should worry less about this. Research commissioned by the British Council shows that 94 per cent of the English spoken in the world today is spoken between non-native speakers of the language. In fact， when we think about ‘international English， there is no such thing as a native or non-native speaker. The UK no longer owns the English language.

Fun corner

Find the odd one out in each set of three words.

1 a youth

b teen

c chav

2 a cool

b whatever

c safe

3 a various

b common

c different

4 a freedom

b censorship

c control

5 a criminal

b identity

c self-expression

6 a well

b radically

c often

7 a decide

b consider

c think about

Word of the day

A young person wearing a jacket with a hood is negatively described as a ‘hoodie.

Activity 1： Matching

Here are words from the article. Match the words with similar meanings. One answer is given.

1 term （c）

2 indigenous

3 vary

4 insult

5 commonly

6 consider （something） to be

7 however

a see （something）

b often

c word

d negative term

e differ

f but

g native

Activity 2： True or false

According to the article， are the following statements true （T） or false （F）？

1 The British keep some words a secret from each other.

2 There are exactly six different English accents in London.

3 ‘Yoof is used as a negative term by some.

4 Yoof are lazy.

5 By using their own language， yoof can avoid their parents control.

6 Hoodies are criminals.

7 Learners of English should try to speak to native speakers of English more.

Activity 3： Multiple choice

For each question， choose the correct yoof answer.

1 Why didnt you do your homework？

a Sound！   b Whatever！

2 Have you seen the new girl at our school？

a Kind-a-thing！   b Shes well fit！

3 Ive bought some new shoes， innit！

a Thats good.   b Wicked！

Answers

Activity 1

2 g

3 e

4 d

5 b

6 a

7 f

Activity 2

1 F

2 F

3 T

4 F

5 T

6 F

7 F

Activity 3

1 b

2 b

3 b

Fun corner

1 c

2 b

3 b

4 a

5 a

6 c

7 a