The white readers can see it as a declaration of the detachment from the culture that always oppressed and underestimated the black people and the black readers in Britain can see it as an encouragement for forming a particular subcultures group that is worth noticing. What is important: in the novel not only the characters use Criticized English but also the Third-person narrative is written in this form. According to Bentley, it “represents an empowering expression of collective identity that rejects the positioning of authority produced by having the narrator speak in Standard English whilst the characters use dialect. Selves rejects Standard English as the only correct arm of English suitable for writing. Moreover, the use of the same form of Criticized English for the characters and for the narrative makes an impression that the person who is telling the story of the immigrants in Britain is actually one of them, and not only some distant observer: the narrator knows the people and situations from his own experience. The only character different from the rest, at least when it comes to language, is Harris. He behaves like Englishmen, dresses like them and also speaks like them.
The narrative comments on it: “Man, when Harris starts to spout English for you, you liaise that you don’t really know the language” (Selves 103). However, the rest of the characters do not approve his way of speaking and behaving. They believe that he should remember his origin and that he should live according to it because they do not want to change their lifestyle as well. The Afro-Caribbean characters in The Lonely Londoner are willing to live next to the white people of Britain but not like them. They all have reason for keeping their old lives.
Some of them, such as Galahad, because even if they behave like the white Barristers they will always main black anyway, which basically keeps them away from the better lives. However, some of them, such as Tanta, because they are proud of their way of live and do not find it any worse that lives of the white people. Several marks make the language of The Lonely Londoner different from Standard English. For example, -the use of “do” even in third person singular, for instance. “He don’t know how he always getting in position like this… “(Selves 4). The above example also shows omission of auxiliary verb “to be” in present continuous.
The verb “to be” is often omitted even in sentences in present simple, as in “It have some fellers who in Briton long… ” (Selves 4). – avoidance of possessive,for example; “The feller name Henry Oliver… “(Selves 1), -usage of “them” instead of “those”, “… And all them English people stopping in the road and admiring the baby curly hair… “(Selves 15). -Selves also makes use altered syntax, and in addition, -selves also makes use of several Caribbean slang words like. “feller”, “spade”, “RA or “test”. Interesting and somewhat problematic issue about the language used in the evolve is, that the language is not authentic.
