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Cockney

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Cockneys are, in the modern-day sense of the word, white working-class inhabitants of London. But according to tradition, the strict definition is limited to those born within earshot (generally taken to be three miles) of the Bow bells, in other words the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. However, the bells were silent from the outbreak of World War II until 1961. Also, of course, as the general din in London has increased, the area in which the bells can be heard has contracted. Formerly it included the City, Bethnal Green, Stepney, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Finsbury, and Hackney although according to the legend of Dick Whittington the bells could be heard from as far away as Highgate.

Origins of the word

The term was in use in this sense as early as 1600, when Samuel Rowlands in his satire The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine, referred to 'a Bow-bell Cockney'. John Minsheu (or Minshew) was the first lexicographer to define the word in this sense, in his Ductor in Linguas (1617), where he referred to 'A cockney or cockny, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London'. However, the etymologies he gave (from 'cock' and 'neigh', or from Latin incoctus, raw) were just guesses, and the OED later authoritatively explained the term as originating from cock and egg, meaning first a misshapen egg (1362), then a person ignorant of country ways (1521), then the senses mentioned above.

Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) derives the term from the following story:

A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called Neighing, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the Cock Neighs?

A more plausible derivation of the word can be found in Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary: London was referred to by the Normans as the "Land of Sugar Cake" (Old French: pais de cocaigne), an imaginary land of idleness and luxury. A humorous appellation, the word 'Cocaigne' referred to all of London and its suburbs, and over time had a number of spellings: Cocagne, Cockayne, and in Middle English, Cocknay and Cockney. The latter two spellings could be used to refer to both pampered children, and residents of London, and to pamper or spoil a child was 'to cocker' him. (See, for example, John Locke, "...that most children's constitutions are either spoiled or at least harmed, by cockering and tenderness." from Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693)

The region that is called 'Cockney" has changed over time, and is no longer the whole of London. As mentioned in the introduction, the traditional definition 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 the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. 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 some said that no 'Bow-bell' Cockneys could be born. The use of such a literal definition produces problems, for traffic noise and the current lack of a hospital with a maternity ward in earshot of the church would also severely limit the number of 'true' cockneys that could be born.

Naturally, modern Cockneys scoff at that limitation, saying that, "The qualification is, that you are born within the area that the bells would be audible in, if they were ringing. They did not have to be ringing at the time (of birth), but if you would have been able to hear them if they were, then you qualify for the honour (of calling yourself a Cockney)." A study was done by the city in 2000 to see how far the Bow Bells could be heard, and it was estimated that the bells would have been heard 6 miles to the east, 5 miles to the north, 3 miles to the south, and 4 miles to the west.

Thus, while all East Enders are Cockney, not all Cockneys are East Enders. The traditional core neighbourhoods of the East End are Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney, Wapping, Limehouse, Poplar Millwall, Shoreditch, Bow and Mile End. The area gradually expanded as more land was built upon.

Cockney culture

London’s East End has always been a place of great change. While these changes were taking place, there was one thing that never changed, the way of the Cockney inhabitants. Their humour, their comradeship, their lively family pubs. There were some real characters about, and they all had one thing in common; they loved the East End they were born in, and would never leave it.

Cockney culture is a culture of small communities and large extended families - mum and dad, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunties and uncles, cousins - several generations often under the same roof or living on the same street. Traditionally, these families were matriarchal in nature - breeding strong domineering resourceful women who ruled the roost in the family home and the wider community. The Eastenders character Lou Beale is a fictional representative of this type of East-end mother earth figure.

Times were hard but the Cockney culture was one of survival and celebration. Christmases, Birthdays, Marriages - even Funerals - those were the good times, shared around the neighbourhood with the front-room, the sacred room, thrown open. Traditionally territorial, the Cockneys' families and their impoverished neighbourhoods was their territory and they guarded it with their lives. Outsiders and do-gooders weren't always welcome: these East-enders were going to make it their own way, and many would die trying.

London speech

Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and frequently use Cockney rhyming slang. There are also several borrowings from Yiddish, including kosher (originally Hebrew, via Yiddish, meaning legitimate) and shtumm (/ʃtʊm/ meaning quiet). A fake Cockney accent, as used by some actors, is sometimes called 'Mockney'.

Typical features of Cockney speech include:

  • Intrusive 'R' after a vowel, hence 'Americer is' for 'America is'
  • dropped H, as in not 'alf pronounced [aːf], ("not half")
  • use of ain't instead of isn't, am not, are not, has not, and have not
  • 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)
  • 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’.

Example: [ˈfɔːʔi ˈfæːzənʔ ˈfɹʌʃɪz ˈfluːˌəʊvə ˈfɔːnʔənˌiːf] 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.

It's also worth noting that as Chatham Dockyard expanded during the 18th Century, large numbers of workers were relocated from the dockland areas of London, bringing with them a "Cockney" accent and vocabulary. Within a short period this famously distinguished Chatham from the neighbouring areas, including the City of Rochester, which had the traditional Kentish accent.

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 'ow i' 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 and Bangladeshi immigrants, many of whom reside in the East End.

Drama and fiction

Famous Londoners

Famous Cockney performances

See also

  • [1] from Grose's 1811 dictionary
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