Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE, also known as Urban British English or UBE) is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th to early 21st century. It is spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London, with variants having emerged in diverse neighbourhoods of other cities, such as Birmingham and Manchester.
As the label suggests, speakers of MLE come from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and live in diverse neighbourhoods. As a result, it can be regarded as a multiethnolect. One study was unable "to isolate distinct (discrete) ethnic styles" in their data on phonetics and quotatives in Hackney and commented that the "differences between ethnicities, where they exist, are quantitative in nature". Linguists have suggested that diversity of friendship groups is a contributing factor to the development of MLE; the more ethnically diverse an adolescent's friendship networks are, the more likely it is that they will speak MLE.
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