Cockney Rhyming Slang
Sir Winston Churchill once observed that Americans and also the British are ‘a standard folks divided by a standard language’ …
Never was that as true as when describing the Cockneys.
You have definitely heard their accent, created famous in everything from movies based on Dickens and George Bernard Shaw novels to pc-generated gekkos telling real gekkos how to go forth and sell automobile insurance. The Australian accent has its roots in Cockney culture, as they comprised a massive percentage of prisoners who were shipped there by the British once they viewed the Land Down Beneath as an ideal penal colony. Cockneys are the crafty characters from east London who admire those among their ton who will create a living simply by ‘ducking and diving, mate,’ that is their version of wheeling and dealing on a working-category level.
To be a ‘true’ Cockney, one should be born ‘at intervals the sounds of the Bow bells.’ That is a reference to the St Mary-le-Bow Church in the Cheapside district of London ‘proper.’ Their sound carries to a distance of approximately three miles, which defines the Cockney digs better than any zoning ordinance could do.
The term ‘Cockney’ initial appeared in the 1600s, however its actual origins are vague. Its first known reference was connected to the Bow bells themselves in an exceedingly amount satire that gave no reason for the association.
Some believe that ‘Cockney’ came from the second wave of Vikings, called the Normans. These were descendants of the Northmen (‘Norman’ was the French word for ‘Viking’) who settled in that half of northern France that came to be known as Normandy when King Charles the Simple ceded it to the Vikings in exchange for ceasing their annual summer sackings of Paris. William the Conqueror was a Norman, and when he took England in 1066, a substantial amount of French influence permeated the Anglican language.
Normans often said London because the Land of Sugar Cake, or ‘Pais de Cocaigne,’ that was an allusion to what they saw as ‘the nice life’ that would be had by living there. Ultimately, this gave rise to a term for being spoiled, ‘cockering,’ and from there, Cockney was a short by-product away.
Cockneys are famous for dropping the ‘H’ from the beginning of words and infamous within the mind of each grammar teacher for his or her coining the word ‘ain’t’ to interchange the formal contraction for ‘is not.’ But, their most unique feature is their distinctive and catchy rhyming slang.
Legend has it that, during the course of their ‘ducking and diving,’ they’d occasionally run afoul of the law. It was not uncommon for teams of Cockneys to be transported along to and from custody and courtroom, clearly in the corporate of policemen. Thus that they could speak openly to every other and deny the officers any ability to understand what they were saying, Cockneys devised a word/phrase association system that only the really-indoctinated could follow. This became referred to as their rhyming slang.
It’s easy, really. For instance:
Dog-and-bone = telephone
Apples-and-pears = stairs
Troubles-and-strife = wife
Therefore, if a Cockney wanted you to go upstairs to tell his wife that there is a phone decision for her, he’d raise you to ‘take the apples and tell the trouble she’s wanted on the dog.’
As a general observation, their technique is {that the} second word of a rhyming phrase is the link between the ‘translated’ word and the first word in the rhyming phrase, which becomes the word used when speaking. Sometimes, though, to stress the word, the whole phrase may be used. Thus, if you are fully exhausted and need to make a point of it, you would exclaim, ‘I am cream crackered!’ This is as a result of ‘knackered’ is an English term for being tired; cream crackers, incidenally, go well with tea.
There are even dictionaries for Cockney rhyming slang, from pocket versions tailored for tourists to online listings. 2 smart sites for the latter are London Slang and Cockney Rhyming Slang. As with most slang, its vibrance is cause for constant expansion and/or modification of terms, therefore the Cockney rhymes are forever a piece in progress.
One note of caution: nothing sounds worse than a visitor attempting to over-Cockney their speech. If you’re thinking of touring an East Finish market or pub and want to pay your respects by using the local vernacular, be ready with a few straightforward terms and deploy them with a smile only when the occasion permits. Otherwise, not being sure if you’re ‘taking the Mickey’ out of them or simply ignorant, the Cockneys will most likely view you as a ‘right Charley Ronce’ and turn away.
Provided that ‘ponce’ is common English slang for a fool — that had its origins in describing a ‘fancy man,’ currently known as a ‘pimp’ in trendy times — you may initial need a ‘British’ translator to inform you what word the Cockney was using. By that point, you will little question agree that Churchill wasn’t ‘alf Pete Tong (ie- wrong).
After all, he didn’t even want to refer to another country so as to be right.
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