Cockney & English . What's the difference , folks ?

Question

A friend of mine told me once that he his first weeks in London were very difficult ; because people speak Cockney !!!???

Answer 1

It's the London dialect. It's actually quite complex, with a lot of glottal stops and very complex vowels. Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and frequently use Cockney rhyming slang. John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1859 makes reference to "their use of a peculiar slang language" when describing the costermongers of London's East End. In terms of other slang, there are also several borrowings from Yiddish, including kosher (originally Hebrew, via Yiddish, meaning legitimate) and shtumm (/ʃtʊm/ meaning quiet), as well as Romany, for example wonga (meaning money, from the Romany "wanga" meaning coal), and cushty (from the Romany kushtipen, meaning good). A fake Cockney accent, as used by some actors, is sometimes called 'Mockney'.

Typical features of Cockney speech include:

Dropped H, as in not 'alf pronounced [a:f], ("not half")
Diphthong shift of [iː] to [əi] (for example beet [bəiʔ]), [eɪ] to [aɪ] (for example bait [baɪʔ]), [aɪ] to [ɒɪ] (for example bite [bɒɪʔ]), and [ɔɪ] to [oɪ] (for example, boy [boɪ].
Merger of /θ/-zd- with /f/, and [ð]-d- with /v/, hence [mæfs] for ‘maths’, [bɒvə] for 'bother'.
Monophthongisation of /aʊ/ to [æː], hence [dæːn] for ‘down’
Use of a glottal stop for intervocalic 't', as in bottle or butter (but not when it precedes the stress, as in deter); it can also occur between other sonorants, as in mental or in Feltham (the h of which is silent even in RP)
Sometimes, use of a labiodental approximant [ʋ] for /r/, in
contrast to an alveolar approximant [ɹ] in RP. To speakers who are not used to [ʋ], this can sound like a /w/.

Vocalisation of dark l, hence mɪowɔː for ‘Millwall’.
Intrusive 'R' after a vowel, hence 'America-r-is' for 'America is'
Use of me instead of my
Use of ain't instead of isn't, am not, are not, has not, and have not
Use of "In'it" to question a positve when making a statement. Ex: Good day today in'it?
Example: Faw'y fahsan' frushes flew ova fawn'n 'eaf for Forty thousand thrushes flew over Thornton Heath

The lengthening of the vowel sound in (for example) grass (from [græs] to [graːs]) was a Cockney innovation which spread and by 1900 was used by many southern English accents. Most of the features mentioned above have in recent years partly spread into more general south-eastern speech, giving the accent called Estuary English); an Estuary speaker will use some but not all of the Cockney sounds. The characteristics of Cockney as opposed to Estuary are the dropping of H and grammatical features like the use of ain't.

A television advertisement for Heineken beer in the 1980s showed a Sloane woman receiving elocution lessons in Cockney, parodying My Fair Lady. In the advert, she was being taught to say "The wa'er in Majorca don' taste like wot it ough' a", but could only manage a posh rendition of "The water in Mallorca doesn't taste quite how it should" (until, of course, she drank the beer).

Today, the traditional form of Cockney rhyming slang seems to be dying out amongst young people, as it is being replaced with slang and patois brought to London by Afro-Caribbean immigrants, many of whom reside in the East End. However, some terms such as 'rabbit' (rabbit and pork = talk) are still in common usage.

If you ever have a chance to see the film "My Fair Lady" you'll be able to hear Audrey Hepburn's superb rendition of Cockney. Not bad for a girl born and brought up in the Netherlands!

Answer 2

"Cockney" refers to the white working class natives of London (or, more traditionally those born within earshot of the Bow Bells, Cheapside), or the dialect/slang used by such people. However, the bells were silent from the outbreak of World War II until 1961. Also, as the general din in London has increased, the area in which the bells can be heard has contracted.

Answer 3

Cockney is English, but it uses a lot of terms specific to Cockney slang. It is a sub-set of English, and if you can picture yourself trying to have a conversation with George Washington (hey, dude, how's your Ipod?) you can picture the difficulties. It is helpful to know some more of the common Cockney Rhyming Slang terms, If someone were to tell you your room is just at the top of the apples and pears, would you know they meant stairs? If someone asked for your titfer would you know they meant hat? It's terrifically fun to learn about.

Answer 4

Cockney's a regional dialect in England