The Historical Enregisterment of London English
Final Report Abstract
During the research fellowship/Forschungsstipendium at Queen Mary University London from September 2021 to August 2023, I conducted ethnographic field work to collect data for my sociolinguistic study ‘The Historical Enregisterment of London English’. The research served to trace the enregisterment, i.e. the conceptualisation and socio-cultural construction, of London dialects by London speakers. I interviewed over 60 informants of all age groups and from all London postcode areas about the language shibboleths they know/use, the social meanings they associate with them, and their own dialect identity and socialisation. I also collected instances of other meta-linguistic activities in the community, such as ‘Cockney sing-alongs’, exhibitions featuring dialect etc. My project was accompanied by public engagement activities that helped to engage speakers in language-reflexive activities, to celebrate and take pride in their linguistic heritage, and to collect more meta-linguistic data from the local community. I participated in academic conferences in the UK and Europe, was invited to give talks about my project, was interviewed for a podcast, and wrote my own interview blog which was shared widely on Twitter/X. I greatly extended my professional network and finalised two journal publications.
