The Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

The analysis up to this point has been a quantitative study of sociolinguistic variation in the traditional East End of London and the results have shown that for the variables analysed, the Bangladeshi boys do not, in general, use variants that are associated with the local dialect of the area. In as much that the Bangladeshi community is now the numerically dominant group, particularly in the adolescent age group, we can say, tentatively, that language change has taken place — meaning that the variety of English spoken by the majority of people in this particular area of London is no longer (at least for the variables analysed) what would traditionally be considered to be Cockney. Furthermore, the non-Bangladeshi boys in this study are adopting the variants associated with the Bangladeshi boys but not the girls, who are all of white Anglo heritage.