COCKNEY

[Dr. Goodword]

• cockney •

Pronunciation: kahk-ni • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A resident of the East End of London. 2. The accent (dialect) associated with the residents of the East End of London.

Notes: Here is an appropriate word to consider while our minds are still on yesterday's all British word, dekko. Cockney English is as striking a dialect of English as 'Brooklynese' or the 'drawls' of the southern US. It contains no Hs, replaces T with the glottal stop we all pronounce between the oh's of Oh-oh!, drops all Rs at the ends of syllables, and replaces TH with F.

In Play: To make this dialect of English all the more impenetrable, Cockneys have introduced a special code called 'Cockney rhyming slang', replacing words with words that rhyme with them. A lie is called a porky because lie rhymes with pork pie. To have a butcher's is to have a look, rhyming with butcher's hook. Your china is your mate because mate rhymes with china plate. Click here to hear some Cockney filled with real and fake rhyming slang.

Word History: You won't believe where this word came from! In Middle English the word was cokenei "cock's (rooster's) egg", something pretty special, wouldn't you say? Well, that is why the meaning soon shifted to "a pampered child", whence it quite naturally took on the meaning "city dweller" to those who resided in the villages and countryside. Cockneys today are a very special type of city dweller. Cock itself is seldom used to refer to a male fowl in the US due to a vulgar sense it has recently assumed. However, it comes from the same source as chicken: sound imitation. Even Late Latin referred to clucking as coccus from coco, the sound of clucking. The Old English word for chicken was cicen, probably from cici [kiki], the sound of chicks clucking (clicking?)

[sluggo]

...Here is an appropriate word to consider while our minds are still on yesterday's all British word, dekko.

Did I miss something? Doesn't show up here.

Click here to hear some Cockney filled with real and fake rhyming slang.

arrgh! 0-for-2!

Slug-
speaking of dekko, still trying to suss why an animated lizard selling car insurance would speak with a Cockney accent-go

[sluggo]

Did I miss something? Doesn't show up here.

Apparently we did not pay up our subscription and missed this one from yesterday: Dekko
Meaning: (British slang) To look, take a look, take a gander.
Dekko here for more...

Click here to hear some Cockney filled with real and fake rhyming slang.

-and the link for today would have gone here. Doesn't sound that accurate to me

[sluggo]

(answering own question)- Googling "geico cockney" yields over 500 results including the actual story of the reptile's development. Suffice to say it was an evolution only the creators themselves would get.

(for readers outside the US: this is a cartoon-creature that sells car insurance in the US and for obscure reasons speaks in a Cockney accent)

He generates a surprising degree of incredulous vitriol as well as plain curiosity, as in this ongoing forum.

A surprising number of commentors thought he was speaking Strine (Australian). One yob even said:
"Is the Geico lizard supposed to be selling insurance to the British?
Maybe that's why he needs a squawky wanna-be Beatle accent" (ouch!)

[skinem]

Don't know if it's true or not, but I've understood that what most Americans think of as a Cockney accent is disappearing and becoming rather rare.

[Perry]

I blame 'enry 'iggins!