English Dialects

cockney
 Etymology
• The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in 
The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman(Passus VI) by 
William Langland and it is used to mean a small, misshapen egg, from 
Middle Englishcoken (of cocks) and ey (egg) so literally 'a cock's egg‘.  In
the Reeve's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer(circa 1386) it appears as "cokenay“,
 and the meaning is "a child tenderly brought up, an effeminate fellow, a 
milksop By 1521 it was in use by country people as a rogatory reference
for the effeminate town-dwellers [5] The term was used to describe those
born within earshot of the Bow Bells in 1600, when Samuel Rowlands, in
his satire The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine, referred to 'a
Bowe-bell or 'A Cockney or Cockny, applied only to one born within’ the
sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London.
 the Cockney area

• The region in which "Cockneys" are thought to

reside is not clearly defined. A common thought is
that in order to be a Cockney, one must have been
born within earshot of the Bow Bells.  However, the
church of St Mary- le- bow was destroyed in 1666
by the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by . After
the bells were destroyed again in 1941 in The
Blitz of World War II, and before they were replaced
in 1961, there was a period when by this definition
no 'Bow-bell' Cockneys could be born.
 Migration and evolution

• Today, certain elements of Cockney English are

declining in usage within 
the area it is most associated with, displaced
by a Jamaican Creole-influenced variety
popular among young Londoners (sometimes
referred to as "Jafaican"), particularly, though
far from exclusively, those of Afro-Caribbean
 descent.
 Cockney speech

• Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent

and dialect, and occasionally use 
rhyming slang. The Survey of English Dialects
 took a recording from a long-time resident of
Hackney, and the BBC made another recording
in 1999 which showed how the accent had
changed.
 Typical features

• As with many accents of England, Cockney is non-rhotic. A final -er is

pronounced [ə] or lowered [ɐ] in broad Cockney. As with all or nearly all non-rhotic
accents, the paired lexical
sets commA and lettER, PALM/BATH and START, THOUGHT and NORTH/FORCE, are
merged. Thus, the last syllable of words like cheetah can be pronounced [ɐ] as well
in broad Cockney.
• Broad /ɑː/ is used in words such as bath, path, demand. This originated in London in
the 16h-17th centuries and is also part of Received Pronunciation.[27]
• T-glottalisation: Use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions]
 including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently
for /k/ and /p/, and occasionally for mid-word consonants. For example, Richard
Whiteing spelt "Hyde Park" as Hy' Par' . Like and light can be homophones.
"Clapham" can be said as Cla'am.] /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically.
London /p, t, k/ are often aspirated in intervocalic and final environments,
e.g., upper, utter, rocker, up, out, rock, where RP is traditionally described as having
the unaspirated variants
 Grammatical features

– Use of me instead of my, for example, "At's me book you

got 'ere". Cannot be used when "my" is emphasised (i.e.,
"At's my book you got 'ere" (and not "his")).
• Use of double negatives, for example "I didn't see nuffink
– Use of ain't instead of isn't, am not, are not, has not,
and have not
– Most of the features mentioned above have, in recent
years, partly spread into more general south-eastern
speech, giving the accent calledEstuary English; an Estuary
speaker will use some but not all of the Cockney sounds
 Spread of Cockney English
• Studies have indicated that the heavy use of South East
English accents on television and radio may be the cause of
the spread of Cockney English since the 1960s.
• Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas
such as Glasgow have begun to use certain aspects of
Cockney and other Anglicisms in their speech, infiltrating the
traditional  Glasgow patter.
• In a survey of 2000 people conducted by Coolbrands in
autumn 2008, Cockney was voted equal fourth coolest accent
in Britain with 7% of the votes, while The Queen's English was
considered the coolest, with 20% of the votes.