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London Accent (Cockney)

There is a vast number of accents in the world. In this paper I would like to concentrate on London
accent,which is also called Cockney. To explain the term cockney in simple words the best
suitable definition would probably be working-class London speech (Wells, 1986). But to
describe the term in a broader way we can use a definition which can be found in the Encyclopedia
Britannica: A colloquial name applied to Londoners generally, but more properly confined to those
born in London, or more strictly still to those born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-Le-Bow
church. (Encyclopedia Britannica). The expression born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-
Le-Bow church refers to people who are living to the east of London and north of the river
Thames.
I chose to write about London accent because I am very interested in accents; I am fascinated by
the fact that people can pronounce the same sounds very differently because of their accent. Also, I
am a student of English Philology, therefore anything related to the English language is very
interesting to me and I would like to investigate it in greater detail.
Cockney is very interesting accent and can be examined from many points of view. Did you know
that Pinky, a lab mouse from the cartoon movie Pinky and the Brain, speaks Cockney? What is
more, most characters in the famous movie Green Street Hooligans speak in Cockney accent, as
well as the cast in Guy Ritchies movies Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I
hope that this information made you feel more related to the topic. The aim of this paper is to
explain what Cockney is and to introduce its features. After reading this paper you will be able to
recognize Cockney. This paper consists of five main points. Firstly, I will shortly describe
Cockneys origin, then its phonetical features, after that we will look at languages that are
influenced by Cockney and vice versa, also a small description of Mockney (fake Cockney accent)
and finally, we will examine the most famous Cockney characteristic Rhyming Slang.
Etymologically, a cockney is a cocks egg (it comes from cokene, the old genitive plural of cock,
and ey, the Middle English word for egg). This was a medieval term for a small or misshapen
egg (Word - Origins 2011). The first to suggest this etymology of the word cockney was James
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Murray (Liberman 2008:35). This term (cocks egg) is very far from the definition that we use
nowadays, which is working-class London speech (Wells 1986:305) or born within the
sound of St Mary-Le-Bow church (Encyclopedia Britannica). Only in the beginning of the 17
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century cockney began to mean someone born in the city of London (Encyclopedia Britannica).
There are many stories about the origin of the word cockney, which are not considered to be true,
but are very popular. The best-known old etymology of cockney goes back to Minsheu (Liberman
2008:36). John Minsheu was an English linguist and lexicographer. According to his anecdote, a
Londoner took his son for a ride in the country. The youngster had never seen animal before and
when he heard a horse, he asked what it was that the horse had done and received the answer: The
horse doth neigh. Soon he heard a cock crow and asked: Doth the cock neigh too?, hence
cockney (cock-neigh) (Liberman 2008:36). Another etymology claims, that cockney derived from
an ancient name of the river Thames. However, a river name Cockney does not turn up in any books
(Liberman 2008:36). One more origin, which should be mentioned when speaking about cockneys
etymology, is applied to a child who is overlong nursed by its mother, hence to a simpleton or
milksop (Encyclopedia Britannica). As it is shown in this paragraph, Cockney has many
etymologies. They lead to a conclusion that Cockney has deep historical roots and that it would be
interesting to examine it even in greater detail.
Another subject, which is worth talking about when speaking about Cockney, is its phonetical
features. We will only look at the most typical features of London accent, as there are too many to
list here. A very noticeable feature is H-dropping, i.e. cockney speaker does not pronounce h in
words like harm (/rm, hrm/), heart (/rt, hrt/), heat (/it, hit/) and so on. Another very
common and regarded as a sound of Cockney is glottal stop (Wells 1986:302). The glottal plosive
is formed by the closure of the vocal cords, where airstream is obstructed. The air pressure below
the glottis is released by the sudden separation of the vocal cords and the air escapes through the
mouth (Dretzke 1998:51). Examples of the T-glottalisation: department [dpmnt, button
bn , butter b, what w]. Additionally, another phonetical characteristic of Cockney is
Th-fronting. That means that in some cases // can become f or v (Wells 1986:328). These three
(H-dropping, glottal stop, Th-fronting) are the main characteristics which help to recognize the
accent as Cockney.
Furthermore, third main point of this paper is Cockneys influence on other languages and vice
versa. London over the years has turned into a multicultural city. The 2001 census showed that
27.1 per cent of Greater Londons population were born outside the United Kingdom and a slightly
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higher proportion of them were non-white, mostly from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean (William
2010:116). Therefore, London has many different accents which influence the traditional London
accent, i.e. Cockney. As a result, a new accent evolved which is called Multicultural London
English (MLE) (William 2010:116). According to Williams book, this new accent is a fusion of
Cockney, Received Pronunciation, and a variety of accents from different ethnic groups, especially
Caribbean (2010:116). Multicultural London English is also known as Jafaican or Blockney
(William 2010:116). Researcher William also states that this dialect (MLE) emerged in the late 20
th

century is spoken mainly in inner London and contains a vocabulary of non-white immigrants
combined with local London English (2010:117). At some point Multicultural London English is an
equivalent of Black English in the United States which some American blacks or African
Americans also call Ebonics (William 2010:117). However, Cockney has also strongly influenced
other dialects. In the book Life in the United Kingdom The Land and the People we learn that
Cockney has strong influence on local speech of towns in Essex (2010:119). Also, Cockney
influenced Estuary English (EE), but EE speakers consider it, on a sociolinguistic level, closer to
Received Pronunciation than to Cockney (Recknagel 2007:25). Thus, accents cannot avoid being
transformed by other accents. In my opinion, it is a natural process.
What is more, next main point of this paper is a small overview of a fake Cockney accent
Mockney. It is a deliberate affectation by some members of the middle class and others of the
working-class London Cockney accent (William 2010:119). According to the author William, the
intention by these Mockneys is to gain popularity and street credibility among the working class
(2010:119). Cockney accent is now considered cool and popular so people often try to copy it.
There are quite a few famous people who can be called Mockneys, e.g. singers Lilly Allen, Kate
Nash, also a well-known chef Jamie Oliver.
Finally, the most famous Cockneys feature is Rhyming Slang. I will focus my biggest attention on
this topic as it is the most important characteristic of Cockney. According to the linguist Dretzke,
rhyming slang refers to words or phrases that rhyme with the words that are really meant: apples
and pears for stairs, God forbids for kids, struggle and strife for wife (1998:165). The first
recordings of the Rhyming Slang date back to the 1840s (Recknagel 2007:9) and were first
recorded by Ducange Anglicus (Gorlach 2002:118). According to a German linguist Gorlach,
Rhyming Slang (RS) items are often reduced to their first elements so that, with the formal link of
the rhyme deleted, the expression becomes even less transparent (2002:118). Thus, RS can serve,
and originally often does, as a form of secret language (Gorlach 2002:118). This form of encrypted
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speech resulted in rhyme-associated expressions such as Do you Oliver? (Recknagel 2007:9).
According to the author, here, Oliver is the shortening of Oliver Cromwell, Cromwell is the rhyme
for tumble which stands for understand, leading to the decoding Do you understand? (2007:9).
Therefore, encrypting language is often traced back to the criminal need of disguising language in
order to mislead the police (Recknagel 2007:10).
According to the linguist Gorlach, Rhyming Slang expression can consist of:
1) First and second names (e.g. Jack Horner corner),
2) N + N compound, or an Adj + N, N + N string (e.g. almond rocks socks),
3) N of N (e.g. plates (of meat) feet),
4) Genitive + N (e.g. elephants (trunk) drunk),
5) N and N (e.g. bee and honey money),
6) Other phrases (e.g. alive or dead head; half-past two - Jew),
7) Double rhyme (e.g. balloon car saloon bar) (2002:119).
It is also worth mentioning, that same expressions can have several meanings. For example, daily
mail was used for ale and tail first, but is now current for tale (Gorlach 2002:120). This feature is
quite predictable, I think, as almost every word in the English language has more than one meaning.
It is said that the non-native speakers have great difficulties with clipped rhyming slang, where
the rhyming word is left out: boat for face (i.e. boat race), porkies for lies (i.e. pork pies), loaf for
head (i.e. loaf of bread) (Dretzke 1998:165). However, I hope after reading these paragraphs you
grasped the main idea of the Rhyming Slang. The next time, an Englishman asks you to have a
butchers, do not be frightened, remember, it only means to have a look (butchers hook look).
In conclusion, in this paper I examined Londons accent Cockney. Firstly, I gave some historical
explanations about Cockney, and then I wrote about its phonetical features. After that, I looked at
languages which are influenced by Cockney and vice versa. Moreover, I did a little overview of
fake Cockney accent (Mockney) and finally focused my biggest attention on Rhyming Slang. While
researching on this topic I found many interesting information which unfortunately I was not able to
include in this paper due to length restriction. The subject which caught my attention is the history
of Pearly Kings and Queens, which is connected with Cockney accent. This phenomenon shows
that accents are not only about differently pronounced sounds, each accent has its unique history
from which a culture may even develop (Pearly Kings and Queens).
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References
1. Dretzke, B. 1998. Modern British and American English Pronunciation. Stuttgart: Ferdinand
Schningh GmbH & Co.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica (online). Cockney. Available at
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/CLI_COM/COCKNEY.html, accessed on 28 of February 2011.
3. Gorlach, M. 2002. Still More Englishes. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
4. Liberman, A. 2008. An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology An Introduction.
Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
5. Recknagel, S. 2007. Cockney and Estuary English a Comparison. Mnchen: GRIN Verlag.
6. Wells, J. 1986. Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. William, D. 2010. Life in the United Kingdom: The Land and the People. Dar es Sallam: New
Africa Press.
8. Word Origins (online). 2011. Cockney. Available at http://www.word-
origins.com/definition/cockney.html, accessed on 11 of April 2011.