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 native to London, because it is not just where a person is born in the UK that decides their accent. Language and accents also differ across class and level of education. Therefore, 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 racial(种族的) backgrounds and different age groups, too.
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 don’t understand, children can talk about things that their parents might not agree with. In this way, young people are starting to find freedom, independence and self-expression. They are creating a “yoof culture”. A few features(特点)of the yoof style of language are as follows:
· instead of “think”, “the”, “that”, “what” and “because”, yoof will say “fink”, “da”, “dat”, “wot” and “coz”.
· instead of using a variety of tag questions like “., isn’t it?” or “... don’t they?”, yoof will use the all-purpose “innit” (e.g. “It’s hot, innit! ”or “You can dance really well, innit!”)
· instead of “I don’t care!”, yoof will say “Whatever!”.
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(辱骂)and is meant to describe someone who is uneducated and anti-social (e.g. “He’s 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(犯罪).
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. 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.
【小题1】Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor in the invention of new accents?| A．Class. | B．Race. | C．Age. | D．Family. |
| A．The word “yoof”. | B．Other people’s attitude. |
| C．The pronunciation of “yoof’. | D．Multicultural London English. |
| A．They are only used online. |
| B．They are simple but easy to understand. |
| C．They are usually an incomplete list of words. |
| D．They are short but have complete grammar structure. |
| A．Young people are more likely to commit a crime. |
| B．Yoof culture has a bad influence on young people. |
| C．Certain groups have negative ideas of the yoof culture. |
| D．Different people have different attitudes towards yoof culture. |
