Cockney

http://DailyDoseOfEnglish.com

Today's Daily Dose is in response to a video request from Christophe in France. Ladies and gentlemen, can I hear a big hand for Christophe in France...
Hello Richard. My name is Christophe and I live in France. Thank you for this very innovative way of teaching English. Richard, could you tell us more about Cockney. A few years ago I went to London and British fans taught me some very funny Cockney expressions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Christophe.
Before I start, I should point out that I am not a Cockney. Cockney is a term used to define a geographic area known as the East End of London. Linguistically, that is from a language point of view, it refers to the type of English spoken by the people who live in the East End.
Although the term Cockney was first recorded in a poem in 1362, The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, by William Langland, its present meaning was first used in 1617. The present meaning describes anyone born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church.
Due to the area over which the sound of the Bow Bells could be heard historically, all East Enders are Cockneys, but not all Cockneys are East Enders.
The linguistic features of Cockney include the greater than average use of the glottal stop, the use of double negatives and the vocalisation of the dark L. But the thing that most people, like Christophe, associate with Cockney is their rhyming slang.
During this Daily Dose of English any Cockney accent that I manage to reproduce will, necessarily, be false. This attempt to mimic a Cockney accent by those who are not true Cockneys is sometimes called Mockney!
Even though I used to work at Guy's Hospital in London, and this hospital is in the area understood to be covered by the sound of the Bow Bells, my attempts at Cockney will be a bit pony to say the least.
pony and trap = trap = crap
Nevertheless, let's take a butchers at some examples of Cockney rhyming slang.
Normally, rhyming slang is created by the replacement of a common word or phrase with two or three other words that rhyme with the original. The original word is normally left out and the origin of the rhyming slang becomes obscure.
Sometimes the original word can be completely obscured over time. Take the slang term aris for instance. This means bottom or arse.
Why? Because arse became bottle and glass which became the slang term bottle, or in Cockney terms, bottle. Bottle was then rhymed with Aristotle, which became aris.
Some words have made it into mainstream English. Take the word berk for instance. The OED defines it as a fool.
He's a right berk!
People use this common expression every day without any idea that it originated from the name of a famous fox hunt - the Berkeley Hunt.
Berkeley Hunt = hunt. Hunt is a rhyming slang for a word that is altogether more offensive, and one which I can't imagine anyone would use in public.
Would you Adam and Eve it?
Eve = believe =believe it
I ain't heard a dicke bird.
dickie bird = bird = word
Come on, use your loaf.
loaf of bread = bread = head
The trouble's been rabbiting on all night on the bone.
trouble and strife = strife = wife
rabbit and pork = pork = talk.
dog and bone = bone = phone
He's telling porkies.
porkies = pork pies = pies = lies
Here, let's have a butchers.
butcher's hook = hook = look
She's got long bacons.
bacon and eggs = eggs = legs
He's brown bread.
brown bread = bread = dead
My plates are killing me.
plates of meat = meat = feet
I need to get myself a new whistle.
whistle and flue = flute = suit
How much for the nanny?
nanny goat = goat = coat
She's just had her Barnet fixed.
Barnet Fair = fair = hair
It's cold out. Put on your Daisies.
Daisy Roots = roots = boots
I'm off down the frog to the battle.
frog and toad = toad = road
battle cruiser = cruiser = boozer = off licence
I hope you enjoyed this Daily Dose of English. Baked potato.
baked potato = potato = later = see you later

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[unhappyalways]

That was good fun! We had not seen any new posts, since you stopped posting under English Social Network. So glad we found 'ere. Baked potato. :o)

[DailyDoseOfEnglish]

@unhappyalways Thanks for your comments, Annie. I'm glad you found the new channel, too. I did send everyone an email, but sometimes they don't get through or read. I hope you continue to enjoy the Daily Doses.

Richard

[Makron5]

Is that a cgi face?

[dave2amsterdam]

People who use Cockney are speaking a dialect as opposed to a London accent.

Londoners drop their "T's and H's ans so do Cockneys, but Cockneys use different words, which are very often from rhyming slang.

[mrathinker]

We can easily out of the solar system.wmv

In fact, we can easily out of the solar system.

What is gravity?

Not all objects attract each other，and is not a time warp.Gravity is quantum pressure exerted by the outer space on the Earth.

[urbanruler]

This is very confusing , No more cockney !!! : )

[DonElgazo]

a freaky junky looks the thin line

between this night and the day ...

while an heavy funky bassline

follows the deaf beats of drumheads ...

Copyleft DonElgazo

[Linguaspectrum]

@LaMansionDelIngles Aylesbury Duck! An Elsie Tanner in the works. Ain't I a bit Uncle Willy?

[LaMansionDelIngles]

Excellent Richard, "me old china". I'll be linking to it for my Students on Facebook. It's an invaluable resource. (typo on "whistle and flute" ).

[Auggie56]

You got a smile from on this one.