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Cockneye Rhyming Slang

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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Cockneye Rhyming Slang
    Posted: 11-Jun-2011 at 22:38
The origin of the famous slang is unknown but has been around for at least two centuries. The most famous theory is Cockney Rhyming was developed by the London underworld as a form of code to speak by so police informers could not understand what they were saying. This theory is almost certainly wrong.


(1) Most Rhyming slang works like this.

A word is given a two word rhyme.

EG: Wife = Trouble and Strife.

The second word is the rhyme but only the first word is spoken. So ‘Trouble’ means ‘Wife.’

‘Here comes Trouble,’ means, ‘here comes the Wife.’


Simple, here are few more examples.

Talk = Rabbit and Pork..... EG: “shut your rabbit.”
Piss = Gypsy's Kiss.... EG: “going for a gypsy’s.”
Lies = Porkie Pies..... EG: “he’s tellin porkies”
Nipple = Raspberry Ripple..... EG; “she’s got nice raspberries”



(2) Sometimes both rhyme words are used.

Bollocks = Jackson Pollock's..... EG: “A load of Jackson Pollocks”
Merchant Banker = w**ker..... EG: “he’s a right merchant banker”
Vomit = Wallace and Gromit
Dead =Brown Bread



(3) Some rhymes can be complex plays on other rhymes or slang words.

Dough = Bread = Bread and Honey = Money
Aris = Aristotle = bottle = bottle and glass = arse
Sweeny = Sweeny Todd = Flying Squad = Police



(4) Some cockney words have found there way into the English language and their rhyming Slang origins forgotten by most.

Regular English words such as Scarper (run), Cobblers (balls), Bread (money), Berk (fool), Loaf (head), Jack (alone) all originated from cockney rhyme.

When someone scarpers from the scene of the crime it is actually a reference to the naval base at Scapa Flow. When someone shouts cobblers meaning rubbish, it comes from the cockney cobblers awl’s. A berk is derived from the Berkshire Hunt and few people comprehend what they are really meaning when they call someone a berk.



(5) Cockney Rhymes as you have probably noticed are generally both misogynistic and satirical. Most of the rhymes were invented in the 19th and early twentieth century, so most of the satire and etymology has been lost, however a few meaning are known.

“On me Jack” means alone from the rhyme Jack Jones. Jack Jones was a 1920’s singer who sang a song about a guy who got rich and alienated all his friends.

Loaf of bread for head is believed to be a reference to the Descartes insult, “go bake your head”.

Thrupenny Bits = Tits is believed to be a prostitution reference.



(6) Making up new slang.

Cockney is an evolving language and old rhymes are forgotten new slang is made up regularly. The most popular and quickly changing are reference to famous people.

An example is the word “sh*t” which a hundred years ago would have been William Pitt, in the sixties became Eartha Kitt and currently is Brad Pitt.



(7) My ears are ringing

Finally how to know if a Cockney on this forum is talking about you.

Pakistani = Bacon Sarnie (sarnie = sandwich)
Yank = Septic Tank
Jock = Sweaty Sock
Manc = Strawberry = Strawberry Split = Mancky Git (Manc = from Manchester)
Greek = Bubble and Squeak
Yid = Four Wheel Skid
Mickey Mouse = Scouse (scouser from Liverpool)
Short & stout = Kraut (kraut = german)
Deisel Engine = Injun (both east and west)
Captain Kirk = Turk

Some dictionaries

http://www.thecockney.btinternet.co.uk/cockney3.htm
http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/
http://www.aldertons.com/english-.htm
http://www.londonslang.com/db/just_heard/
http://www.phespirit.info/cockney/
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  Quote PADDYBOY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 08:31
How the heck did Cockney rhyming slang find its way into intellectual discussions ? (just kidding)

What I find interesting about rhyming slang, is the way it has found popularity in most regions of Britain. Even up here in Bonny Scotland you will come across native Scots using it from time to time.
I'm not sure you'll find many Londoners using the Lallans or the Gaelic. In fact you wont.

Interesting thread, Toltec.
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  Quote PADDYBOY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 09:07
Just asking out of curiosity here, but have you any idea why Cockney's use derogatory terms to describe the Americans and the Scots ?

Septic tank and sweaty sock aren't exactly flattering terms by any stretch of the imagination, so I was wondering if Cockney's dislike the Yanks and Jocks, for any reason....Ouch
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 09:43
Shit is Pitt....well I am with the Cockneys on that.Cool
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 10:17
Technically it would be 'I'm going for a Brad'.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 10:24
Clap
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote PADDYBOY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 11:51
I guess that makes me a 'sweaty' ?

Oh well..I've been called worse. Shocked Tongue

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  Quote medenaywe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 12:20
Is my slang "pussy face in our place" Cockney?Cause I am not Londoner i am curious about it:will it be in next Oxford/Webster dictionaries updates?
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 14:22
LOL
Dunno about Cockney....but it's got a ring.
 
I'm not going to ask what it refers too.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jun-2011 at 16:33
At work we called ginger beer "Tony" after a gay co-worker in an example of reversed rhyming slang
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Mar-2012 at 15:08
I think there are Scottish versions of certain terms, as in someone being corn beef when having difficulty hearing. Smile
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Mar-2012 at 16:50
Further to what I have said in the post above I came across this old article from a newspaper.


Young Scots breathe new life into auld slang rhymes


Are ye corned beef? I said sit doon on yer chorus and we'll have a wee Salvador. Mine's a Mick Jagger by the way.

The Scots tongue, already incomprehensible to many south of the border, is about to become even more abstruse with the emergence of a new form of Scottish rhyming slang.

Researchers compiling a series of Scottish language dictionaries say devolution has spawned a distinctive rhyming vernacular, especially among the country's young.

So now, on top of the glottal stop and the distinctive burr, translators will have to contend with such obscure Scots phraseology as corned beef, as in "deif", as in deaf. And chorus, as in chorus and verse, as in "erse", as in arse. Salvador, as in Dali, as in "swallie", as in swallow, as in drink. Jagger as in lager.

Pauline Cairns, a senior editor for the new dictionaries, said there had always been examples of rhyming slang in Scots but its use had become much more widespread thanks to a growing national pride in the country's native tongue following the creation of the Scottish parliament and the breakdown of the class system.

"Before, whether or not you spoke Scots very much depended on what register people were brought up with," she told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

"For nice, middle-class people, Scots would have been something of a taboo, it would have been seen as bad English. Today that's not the case."

Language expert Iseabail Macleod said researchers working on the new dictionar ies had noticed that rhyming slang was becoming more common north of the border, particularly in Glasgow, but said the Scottish version would fall hard on English ears.

"The use of rhyming slang was always thought of as a London thing. But one interesting thing which will tell you that this way of rhyming is different is that it won't work in English," she said.

"For example, we say corned beef to mean 'deif', but beef doesn't rhyme with deaf. And 'pottit heid' means 'deid', which doesn't rhyme with the word dead."

But with a political leader (Jack McConnell) whose surname doesn't easily lend itself to verse, Scots still have to refer south of the border on some matters. As in "yer Tony's in a real state". As in hair. As in Blair.

Pit on the paraffin Affect an air of sophistication. Paraffin "ile" (oil) - style

Let's have a shammy Chamois leather. Blether - chat

A right collie dug - mug

Whodunnit Bunnet - hat

You know the Hampden Hampden roar - score

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/apr/29/britishidentity.research

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