Cockney Rhyming Slang
Posted by | Language | Posted on July 29th, 2010
Sir Winston Churchill once observed that Americans and the British are ‘a customary people divided past a prosaic wording’ …
Conditions was that as happen as when describing the Cockneys.
You’ve certainly heard their beat, made renowned in the whole kit from movies based on Dickens and George Bernard Shaw novels to computer-generated gekkos telling official gekkos how to go forth and merchandise motor vehicle insurance. The Australian set off has its roots in Cockney culture, as they comprised a beneficent cut of prisoners who were shipped there by the British when they viewed the Splash down Down Under as an idealistic correctional colony. Cockneys are the duplicitous characters from east London who worship those among their lot who can cause a living simply by way of ‘ducking and diving, join,’ which is their adaptation of wheeling and dealing on a working-class level.
To be a ‘true’ Cockney, lone must be born ‘within the sounds of the Bow down bells.’ That’s a specification to the St Mary-le-Bow Church in the Cheapside territory of London ‘proper.’ Their sound carries to a stretch of approaching three miles, which defines the Cockney digs ameliorate than any zoning ordinance could do.
The arrange ‘Cockney’ first appeared in the 1600s, but its physical origins are vague. Its victory known quotation was agnate to the Bow bells themselves in a period exaggeration that gave no reason exchange for the association.
Some credence in that ‘Cockney’ came from the essay duplicate wave of Vikings, known as the Normans. These were descendants of the Northmen (’Norman’ was the French information in support of ‘Viking’) who settled in that depart of northern France that came to be known as Normandy when Majesty Charles the Simple ceded it to the Vikings in exchange payment ceasing their annual summer sackings of Paris. William the Conqueror was a Norman, and when he took England in 1066, a estimable amount of French control permeated the Anglican language.
Normans often referred to London as the Alight of Sugar Bun, or ‘Pais de Cocaigne,’ which was an allusion to what they catchword as ‘the upstanding existence’ that could be had beside living there. In the end, this gave waken to a term championing being spoiled, ‘cockering,’ and from there, Cockney was a short-lived borrowed away.
Cockneys are eminent with a view dropping the ‘H’ from the start of words and abhorrent in the mind of every grammar coach for their coining the order ‘ain’t’ to supplant the formal contraction in requital for ‘is not.’ However, their most in perfect accord quirk is their distinctive and catchy rhyming slang.
Legend has it that, during the course of their ‘ducking and diving,’ they would occasionally get a move on afoul of the law. It was not uncommon for the sake of groups of Cockneys to be transported together to and from custody and courtroom, plainly in the company of policemen. So that they could represent frankly to each other and withhold the officers any genius to know what they were saying, Cockneys devised a word/phrase affiliation methodology that however the truly-indoctinated could follow. This became known as their rhyming slang.
It’s unostentatious, really. Seeing that example:
Dog-and-bone = telephone
Apples-and-pears = stairs
Troubles-and-strife = bride
So, if a Cockney wanted you to crack upstairs to disclose his spouse that there’s a phone gather in place of her, he’d quiz you to ‘filch the apples and tell the impose on she’s wanted on the dog.’
As a inexact remark, their mode is that the another briefly of a rhyming phrase is the link between the ‘translated’ in sum and the in the beginning word in the rhyming word, which becomes the word against when speaking. Sometimes, for all that, to emphasize the vow, the entire say energy be used. Ergo, if you are decidedly exhausted and want to hint a nub of it, you would bawl, ‘I’m cream crackered!’ This is because ‘knackered’ is an English compromise concerning payment being wiped out bored with; cream crackers, incidenally, try well with tea.
There are sober-sided dictionaries looking for Cockney rhyming slang, from bag versions tailored as a service to tourists to online listings. Two proper sites an eye to the latter are London Slang and Cockney Rhyming Slang. As with most slang, its vibrance is prime mover benefit of unremitting enlargement and/or modification of terms, so the Cockney rhymes are at all times a work in progress.
Identical note of advice: nothing sounds worse than a company attempting to over-Cockney their speech. If you’re assessment of touring an East End supermarket or cocktail lounge and want to reward your respects not later than using the state spoken, be modified with a scattering simple terms and deploy them with a grin solitary when the celebration permits. In another situation, not being established if you’re ‘taking the Mickey’ doused of them or just unknowing, the Cockneys will most right sight you as a ‘promising Charley Ronce’ and modify away.
Settled that ‘ponce’ is plain English slang for the treatment of a fool — which had its origins in describing a ‘embroidered bloke,’ now known as a ‘pander’ in present-day times — you may opening need a ‘British’ translator to tell you what dispatch the Cockney was using. Not later than that term, you’ll no uncertainty to that Churchill wasn’t ‘alf Pete Tong (ie- wrong).
In actuality, he didn’t monotonous extremity to refer to another rural area in quiet to be right.
Nice Twist
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on July 22nd, 2009
The legendary George Carlin made a career out of calling attention to the difference between how words and phrases are perceived as opposed to what they’re ‘actually’ saying …
He would ask wonderfully rhetorical questions, my favorite of which was this:
- Would you really get on a non-stop flight?
And yet, that term is not only used on a daily basis, but with a straight face every time. How does this happen, where nonsense actually becomes an understandable phrase?
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the use of the English language. The conservative view is that its integrity must be maintained, perhaps grudgingly at times. The liberal view is that, in order to be a lively, vibrant language, it needs to adapt to the times. Of course, there’s also my view, which is that the English language defies definition.
My case could be started by citing the classic instance where it can be argued that ‘ghoti’ is a homonym of ‘fish’ by nature of the following logic:
- ‘gh’ sounds like ‘f’ in words like ‘enough’ and ‘cough;’
- ‘o’ sounds like ‘i’ in ‘women;’ and
- ‘ti’ sounds like ’sh’ in words like ’sanction’ and ‘action.’
This is a ridiculous extreme, of course. The evolution of letter combinations and the sounds they represent in English is a result of dialectical isolation over many decades. As universal as the language has become, this is a natural progression. It’s also why more geographically ‘compact’ languages such as Swedish remain ‘purer’ in the logic of their pronunciation rules.
Another development of English is that, not only do sounds change over time, so do definitions.
With that in mind, let’s take a ‘nice’ change of direction. ‘Nice’ has its origin in the Latin word, ‘nescius,’ which means ‘ignorant.’ So, the phrase ‘nice man’ would have been referring to an idiot in the 1400s. However, by the 1600s, the word had turned. A ‘nice man’ then meant that he was ‘refined.’ After slightly more than a century, a ‘nice man’ had become ‘pleasant’ — and recognized in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as such — which stands to this day.
How ’sick’ is that for a turn of events?
I’m not sure what ‘dudes’ did in the 1400s to do the deed on ‘nice,’ but their modern-day progeny are alive and well today, turning the street meaning of ’sick’ into a synonym for ‘cool,’ which was ‘morphed’ by earlier ‘cats’ from a temperature condition to a state of zeitgeist. (That’s German for ‘trendy;’ conservatives find foreign phrases acceptable as ‘pop’ condescensions.) Every generation has its slang, of course. It’s rare that definitions of affected words actually evolve into the established vernacular, ie- dictionary recognition, which ironically gives them the distinction of being defended by conservatives as ‘proper’ English. Whether that occurs or not, people of each time period still need to understand each other. This gives rise to ‘alternative’ reference sources.
One of the more interesting of these today is the Urban Dictionary. It’s the brainchild of Aaron Peckham, a student at (where else?) Cal Poly. He saw a need to catalog, define and post today’s slang for the benefit of all. His site is non-profit and its popularity has skyrocketed. The key reason for this has got to be the exponential growth of cyberspace.
The Urban Dictionary has become so popular, it’s now available in book form. It contains a modest 2000 slang definitions. However, that’s the same as the number of submissions the website receives every day from contributors around the world. You’ll find over 250,000 submissions there, from emoticons to phrases.
If you’ve ‘gone 404′ — a reference for the online error message displayed when a site is missing — you’re truly speaking geek. If you’re ignoring someone by concentrating on your electronic device, such as a PDA, MP3 or laptop, you’re ‘evoiding’ them. Have you ever accidentally called someone because your mobile phone is fitting too tightly in your pocket? If so, you’ve just ‘butt dialed’ someone.
Peckham’s labor of love attracts millions of hits per year. He now utilizes the services of volunteer editors to keep his site up-to-date. It’s fair to say that the Urban Dictionary has become a reliable reference for coping with the cyber-culture. Peckham says as much in the book’s introduction, calling it “a resource for parents trying to understand their kids, for language learners confused by real-world English &ndash but most of all for your entertainment.”
It is an interesting surf. As he promises, it can even be quite useful. In fact, I’d even go so far to say that he’s done a very nice job with it. Very nice, indeed. In a sick sort of way, of course.
Nice Twist
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on July 22nd, 2009
The legendary George Carlin made a career out of calling attention to the difference between how words and phrases are perceived as opposed to what they’re ‘actually’ saying …
He would ask wonderfully rhetorical questions, my favorite of which was this:
- Would you really get on a non-stop flight?
And yet, that term is not only used on a daily basis, but with a straight face every time. How does this happen, where nonsense actually becomes an understandable phrase?
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the use of the English language. The conservative view is that its integrity must be maintained, perhaps grudgingly at times. The liberal view is that, in order to be a lively, vibrant language, it needs to adapt to the times. Of course, there’s also my view, which is that the English language defies definition.
My case could be started by citing the classic instance where it can be argued that ‘ghoti’ is a homonym of ‘fish’ by nature of the following logic:
- ‘gh’ sounds like ‘f’ in words like ‘enough’ and ‘cough;’
- ‘o’ sounds like ‘i’ in ‘women;’ and
- ‘ti’ sounds like ’sh’ in words like ’sanction’ and ‘action.’
This is a ridiculous extreme, of course. The evolution of letter combinations and the sounds they represent in English is a result of dialectical isolation over many decades. As universal as the language has become, this is a natural progression. It’s also why more geographically ‘compact’ languages such as Swedish remain ‘purer’ in the logic of their pronunciation rules.
Another development of English is that, not only do sounds change over time, so do definitions.
With that in mind, let’s take a ‘nice’ change of direction. ‘Nice’ has its origin in the Latin word, ‘nescius,’ which means ‘ignorant.’ So, the phrase ‘nice man’ would have been referring to an idiot in the 1400s. However, by the 1600s, the word had turned. A ‘nice man’ then meant that he was ‘refined.’ After slightly more than a century, a ‘nice man’ had become ‘pleasant’ — and recognized in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as such — which stands to this day.
How ’sick’ is that for a turn of events?
I’m not sure what ‘dudes’ did in the 1400s to do the deed on ‘nice,’ but their modern-day progeny are alive and well today, turning the street meaning of ’sick’ into a synonym for ‘cool,’ which was ‘morphed’ by earlier ‘cats’ from a temperature condition to a state of zeitgeist. (That’s German for ‘trendy;’ conservatives find foreign phrases acceptable as ‘pop’ condescensions.) Every generation has its slang, of course. It’s rare that definitions of affected words actually evolve into the established vernacular, ie- dictionary recognition, which ironically gives them the distinction of being defended by conservatives as ‘proper’ English. Whether that occurs or not, people of each time period still need to understand each other. This gives rise to ‘alternative’ reference sources.
One of the more interesting of these today is the Urban Dictionary. It’s the brainchild of Aaron Peckham, a student at (where else?) Cal Poly. He saw a need to catalog, define and post today’s slang for the benefit of all. His site is non-profit and its popularity has skyrocketed. The key reason for this has got to be the exponential growth of cyberspace.
The Urban Dictionary has become so popular, it’s now available in book form. It contains a modest 2000 slang definitions. However, that’s the same as the number of submissions the website receives every day from contributors around the world. You’ll find over 250,000 submissions there, from emoticons to phrases.
If you’ve ‘gone 404′ — a reference for the online error message displayed when a site is missing — you’re truly speaking geek. If you’re ignoring someone by concentrating on your electronic device, such as a PDA, MP3 or laptop, you’re ‘evoiding’ them. Have you ever accidentally called someone because your mobile phone is fitting too tightly in your pocket? If so, you’ve just ‘butt dialed’ someone.
Peckham’s labor of love attracts millions of hits per year. He now utilizes the services of volunteer editors to keep his site up-to-date. It’s fair to say that the Urban Dictionary has become a reliable reference for coping with the cyber-culture. Peckham says as much in the book’s introduction, calling it “a resource for parents trying to understand their kids, for language learners confused by real-world English &ndash but most of all for your entertainment.”
It is an interesting surf. As he promises, it can even be quite useful. In fact, I’d even go so far to say that he’s done a very nice job with it. Very nice, indeed. In a sick sort of way, of course.