LONDON

COCKNEY DIALECT
Group 6: Thanh Thy
Thanh Hng
Tr My
Thy Linh

 Pen and Ink

Stink

Raspberry Tart

Fart

Trouble and Strife

Wife

Britneys (Britney
Spears)

Beers

CONTENT
I. OVERVIEW OF COCKNEY DIALECT
II. COCKNEY FEATURES
1. PRONUNCIATION
2. GRAMMAR
III. COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG

OVERVIEW OF COCKNEY DIALECT

1. ETYMOLOGY
2. COCKNEY AREA
3. SOCIAL PERCEPTION OF COCKNEY

ETYMOLOGY
A true Cockney is someone
born within the sound of the
Bow Bells of St. Mary-le-Bow
Church in Londons East End
In 1362, the first use of
Cockney was recorded in a
masterpiece of William

 Geographically and
culturally, it often
refers to working
class Londoners
Linguistically, it
refers to the form
of English spoken
by this group

COCKNEY AREA
Cockney is presently most likely to refer
to people speaking dialect but not people
born within earshot of the Bow Bells
the best known areas are East End
districts
expand to East Ham, Stratford, West
Ham and Plaistow
Cockney has broken the limits and spread
into many more areas throughout
London, and also crossed the continents

Social Perception of Cockney

Cockney is not only a regional dialect but a class dialect as
well since it was mainly used by the working class and also
taken up by criminals
Cockney was looked down upon by many
people
Cockney dialect was regarded as a vulgar manner of
speaking
Cockney speakers were considered ignorant,
impoverished and uneducated themselves
Until the 18th century, linguists started to take interest in
non-standard varieties of English including Cockney
From the beginning of the 20th century onwards, the
acceptance of the dialect and its speakers changed

COCKNEY FEATURES
1.PRONUNCIATION
2.GRAMMAR

PRONUNCIATION
1.schwa sound
-.uh sound => it is more strongly pronounced
-.Example: Doctor => Doctah
Stronger, faster, harder => strongah, fastah,
hardah

2. H-dropping

- Any words begin with the H sound: dont

pronounce it.

- Dont need the H, never have, H is useless

- Examples: Who, have, house => ooh, av, ouse
Who are you?
Thats his house.
I hate you.

3. L sound

- The l sounds can sometimes sound like

w sound: L => ew

- Example:
hell should be pronounced Cockney
accent like Hew
Pill pew, Phil phew

4. Glottal T
- This is the T sound which is replaced by the
sound in the middle of Uh-Oh : water waer.
- The T stops in the throat: Bottle of water bole
of waer
- Remember to use the Glottal T, the L that sounds
like W, and that schwa sound.
- Other words could include: lighter
Examples: Can I have a lighter?
My head! It hurts.

5. TH sound

a. The voiced Ths

- They have a vibration in the throat.
Examples: brother, bother, father, clothes, leather
- Those th sounds will replaced by a V sound.
=> Bruvah, bovah, Muvah, favah, cloves, levah

b. The unvoiced th
- no vibration, just breath.
Examples: thank you, everything, nothing,
Thursday, sympathetic
- They should be replaced by Fs
=> Fank you, fursday, nuffing, everyfing,
sympafetic
- In some words like: the, them, that => dont say
the Th sound all the time.

6. Diphthongs
- The sounds come from around the side of the
mouth
Examples: ow sound shoud be like: aoo => cow
or sound like oh: talk, walk
- Words which have ai sounds, we dont say like
ai. We say like oi
Examples: alright, pie, thigh, tight, like

GRAMMAR
1. Regular and irregular verbs forms
-.Past tense of irregular verbs is formed by adding an
-ed suffix
For example
Standard grammar

Cockney

grammar
Build

Built

Builded

2. Misusing of the third-personsingular-s

- Instead of omitting it, third-person-singular-s is
usually added to all forms of the verb
Standard grammar
Cockney grammar
Go I go, we go, he goes I goes, you goes, he goes
Have I have, we have, he has I has, we has, he
has

3. Using double negative

Standard grammar Cockney grammar
I havent got a dog in my car I havent got no dog in
my car.
Standard English where using a double negative
would not be tolerated
Cockney breaks this rule and it is also very popular
among its speakers.

4. Me vs. my
- Possessive pronoun my is replaced by
objective pronoun me.
For example
Standard grammar
Cockney grammar
I live with my mother I live with me mother

- Cannot use my
instead of me.
For instance:
Do you like my?
make no sense
Do you like me?

COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG

1. Definition
Cockney Rhyming slangs: A form of
English slang which originated in the
East End of London, not a language but a
collection of phrases used by Cockneys
and other Londoners ( urban dictionary)
Rhyming slang: the target words that
conveys the intended meaning is replaced
by other words or phrase rhyming with it,
the rhyming elements being sometimes

Origin of Cockney Rhyming

slangs

As the secret language of thieves to

communicate in public in order to not to be

understood by the policeman( Hotten, 1859)
Rhyming slang was developed as a goodhumored joke by Cockneys so that outsiders,
such as groups of Irish navies working on
canal and railway construction, could not
understand them
=>
The origin of rhyming slang is
disputed.

Formation of rhyming slang

Four main categories (Butcher &
Gnutzamann, 1997)
Forms with general lexemes: 2 lexemes joined
by and and Compound words. Ex: Rattle and
Clank (bank), . Cheese Grater (waiter)
Forms with proper nouns: Ex: John Prescott
( waistcoat), Uncle Ben( ten), Milton Keynes
(beans)
Forms with Adjective + Noun. Ex: Sticky Toffee
(coffee)

Examples of Cockney
Rhyming
Slangs
Youll never Adam and Eve what happened to me the
other day. As I was walking down the frog and toad, I
saw a tea leaf trying to steal a jam jar. Well, my jam tart
was racing, so I rushed up the apples and pears and got
on the dog and bone to the police, but the line was
brown bread. (Todd, 2007)

 Adam and Eve:

Believe
Frog and Toad:
Road
Tea leaf: Thief
Jam Jar: Car
Jam Tart: Heart
Apples and Pears:
Stairs
Dog and Bone:
Phone

Modern Cockney Slangs

Tend to rhymes word with the name of famous people or

celebrities
Ex: Britney Spears- Beers . In the context: Im just going
down the pub for a
few Britneys.
Bruce Lee- Pee. Martial arts legend is now synonimous with
another toilet function
Brad Pitt- Shit
Vincent Van Gogh- cough. In the context: . I cant talk much,

References
Ellis, A. J. (1890). English dialects: Their Sounds and Homes. London:

English Dialect Society.

Fox, S (2015). The New Cockney: New Ethnicities and Adolescent Speech
in the Traditional East End of London. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gimson, A. C. (1994). Gimson's Pronunciation of English. (5th ed.). London:
Arnold.
Pleij, H. (2001). Dreaming of Cockaigne. New York: Columbia University
Press.
Matthews, W. (1972). Cockney Past and Present: a Short History of the
Dialect of London. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

 Rusch, S. (2006). Cockney. Its Characteristics and Its Influence on

Present-Day English. Munich, German: GRIN Verlag.

Walker, J. (1791). A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of
the English Language. New York: New York Public Library.
Wells, J. (1986). Accents of English: The British Isle Volume 2. UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Wherrett, D. (2009). Cockney, Past and Present: A Dictionary of
Cockney Rhyming Slang. Retrieved from:
http://www.watchya.com/slang/Rhyming_Slang.pdf
Wright, P. (1981). Cockney Dialect and Slang. London: B.T. Batsford
Ltd.
L-vocalization, L-Vocalization, www.l-vocalization.co.tv .
Recknagel, S (2006). Cockney and Estuary English - A Comparison.
Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. http://bit.ly/mpjMYH

 THANKS FOR

LISTENING!