英国约克大学Paul Kerswill来我校学术讲座

题   目：多元文化中的伦敦英语：英国方言的未来？（Multicultural London English：the Future of Dialects in Britain?
主讲人：Paul Kerswill 教授
（英国约克大学院士）
时  间：2018年9月5日（周三）晚7:30~9:10
地  点：外国语学院101会议室
内容简介：In this lecture, I will begin by looking at the 'dialect landscape' of Britain, showing how, over a relatively small geographical space, there is a great deal of variation. These dialects have historical roots in the settlement of Britain by Anglo-Saxons from the 5th century. However, modern dialects are being 'levelled', meaning that there are now fewer differences between the dialects of the country. In the midst of this dialect levelling, we now see a new phenomenon: the emergence of new dialects of English in the multicultural, multilingual inner cities, most particularly in London. Currently, there are over 300 languages spoken in London, and in many areas fewer than half the population comes from English-speaking backgrounds. In these areas, young people of all ethnic and linguistic backgrounds grow up acquiring English in a context where most people speak it as a second language. I will show how this has resulted in a range of new features, particularly in pronunciation, but also in the grammar. Finally, I consider the consequences of this phenomenon for the English language in Britain and worldwide.