Was/werevariation: A perspective from London

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents a systematic analysis of morphosyntactic variation in London English, investigatingwas/werevariation in the speech of adolescents and elderly speakers in a multicultural inner London area and a less diverse outer London area. In outer London, dialect leveling to a mixedwas/weren'tsystem is well underway, as in many other areas of the U.K. Negativeweren'tis frequent and a grammaticalized invariantweren't ittag is developing. In inner London, variation in adolescent speech is strongly influenced by ethnicity, resulting in a lower overall frequency ofwasleveling and, in negative contexts, a mixed pattern of leveling to bothwasn'tandweren't. The patterns of variation of Anglo “heritage” inner London adolescents differ both from elderly speakers in the same area and from their peers in outer London. Our analysis confirms the need for socially realistic models of language change that take account of the social diversity of large multicultural urban cities.