Who are the Cockneys?

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Individual work

Theme: Cockney

Done by: Kusanova Meerim

Group: Philology (English language)

Checked: Aigerim Madazimjanovna

Content

1. What is the Cockney dialect?

2. Who are the Cockneys?

3. History of the development of Cockney

4. Cockney slang

5. Rhyming slang

List of literature

1. What is the Cockney dialect?

The special accent and unusual rhyming slang of the residents of London's East End are famous all over the world. From the secret language of the slums, the Cockney dialect has become an element of the cultural heritage of Great Britain.

2. Who are the Cockneys?

secret language slang

Cockney slang appeared in the 1840s among East End Londoners, who at that time had the disparaging nickname “cockney" (cockney). Literally, this word can be translated as "cock's egg". This was the name of an underdeveloped egg of a young laying hen, and subsequently the nickname "cockney" was awarded by English villagers to urban workers for ignorance of the village way of life and traditions.

It was believed that a true Cockney was a Londoner born within earshot of the bells of the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (“Bow-bell Cockneys").

As a rule, these were the lower strata of English society, slum dwellers: workers, street vendors, shipbuilders, artisans, petty thieves and swindlers. The special vocabulary and unusual pronunciation became something like a secret language that allowed the “initiates” to confuse and even deceive strangers, police officers and other lovers of eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

Notable are the festive outfits in which some Cockney hats with bright feathers, dresses and suits embroidered with mother--of-pearl buttons are still dressed to this day; for this they are called Pearly Kings and Queens.

3. History of the development of Cockney

An adherent of Cockney was, for example, one of the largest and most popular prose writers of the 19th century, Charles Dickens. Dickens grew up in close enough contact with poverty to feel people of a certain circle, and despite his generosity of mind, he was not free from the specific prejudices of those who carefully hide their origin, which is generally not typical of Cockney representatives. It is customary to call Dickens a "people's" writer, a defender of the "oppressed masses".

First of all, Dickens came from the south of England, therefore, a Cockney, and therefore did not encounter a mass of really oppressed - industrial and agricultural workers. It's funny to observe that Chesterton, another 19th-century English writer and journalist, also a Cockney, is always trying to expose Dickens as an exponent of the views of the "poor", without having any idea who this "poor" really is. For Chesterton, the "poor" are small shopkeepers and servants. Sam Weller, he argues, "in English literature there is a great symbol of the inherent people of England" Dickens Ch. Posthumous notes of the Pickwick Club. - Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1954. - p. 78., and Sam Weller is the valet! Secondly, the experience of childhood laid in Dickens a horror of the rudeness of the proletarians. This manifests itself in him quite definitely as soon as he writes about the poorest of the poor, about the inhabitants of the slums. His descriptions of the London slums are full of undisguised disgust: "The passages and passages were narrow and filthy, the shops and shacks screamed about extreme poverty, the half-naked inhabitants staggered, sloppy, drunk and ugly. Alleys and passages under arches, coupled with many cesspools, belched out stench, dirt, and life directly onto the disorderly streets; the whole quarter was saturated with crime and debauchery, like soot, covered with profanity and squalor."

Dickens writes nothing about agriculture and infinitely much about food. This is not a simple coincidence. He was a Cockney, and London is, in the words of many, the center of the earth in about the same sense as the stomach is the center of the body - a city of consumers, people deeply civilized. A person who has studied Dickens' books a little deeper is amazed: for a writer of the XIX century, the author is very ignorant, he knows very little about what is really happening and how.

In the strict and correct sense of the word, Cockneys are those who were born to the ringing of the bells of the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. Cockney is also a language (and from the point of view of linguistics, a sublanguage) used by the natives of this area. Moreover, a true Cockney used to be considered a person born within earshot of the chiming of the bells at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. This church, one of the most famous churches in London, is located in the East End. It was built in 1671-1680 by architect K. Ren on the site of the burned-down former church. The word "Bow" in the title (from English. bow - arch) arose from the fact that the church was built over a Norman underground chapel with a stone arched vault. It is believed that a person born within earshot of the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow is a true Cockney. On May 10, 1941, a bomb dropped by a German plane hit the church, as a result, most of the church building was destroyed, and the bells crashed to the ground. In 1956, the restoration of the church began under the leadership of L. King, and already in 1961 the church bells sounded again, giving rise to a new generation of Cockneys

There are several explanations for how the Cockney appeared. Some believe that it was used by market traders to deceive buyers from other areas, another opinion says that it was invented as a special language for small hooligans and criminals to communicate so that the police could not understand them.

Regardless of which version is considered correct, one thing is certain: the Cockney language was originally intended to distinguish the individuality of a certain community in London, and subsequently supplemented traditional British English. Due to the resettlement of residents, as well as in connection with the broadcast of the dialect on local television, the dialect has become popular in other areas of London, and some expressions have become so familiar with the English language that they are widely used in other parts of the world.

Нere are also some funny examples, thanks to which the Cockney language is often used in works of literature, cinema and even in the seemingly traditional and conservative English press. Rhyming expressions allow you to create interesting headlines, as well as mislead people who are not native speakers.

Strange and weird = beard

Tina Turner = earner

Fat Boy Slim = gym

China plate = mate

4. Cockney slang

Cockney is also distinguished by slang, which, together with pronunciation, can cause difficulties even for someone who has been studying English for a long time. The table shows the most popular phrases from Cockney slang:

5. Rhyming slang

The Cockney dialect has a unique feature -- rhyming slang. If in ordinary slang you can somehow explain and guess the meaning of words (a car - a motor, to stop it -- to leave it out), then in rhymed slang it is difficult to find logic -- everything there is based only on rhyme. For example, the phrase lemon and lime means time only because lime rhymes with time. In a sentence, the word time can simply be replaced with lemon and lime. It turns out, in Cockney slang, What's the time? will it sound like What's the lemon and lime? Cockney speakers often remove the second part of the phrase altogether and say What's the lemon? (What time is it?)

A few more examples are given in the table. Since those who speak Cockney often omit the second word in rhyme, for better understanding, the full version of the phrase was indicated in parentheses.

Despite other features and a fairly rich history, Cockney is known primarily due to their dialect Shaposhnikova E.A. Lexicographic description of English rhymed slang. It is characterized by a special pronunciation and slang expressions. There are quite a lot of pronunciation features, mainly vowel stretching, skipping or easy pronunciation of some consonants.

After the Second World War, Cockneys acquired new, previously uncharacteristic features. The working class began to consist not only of Englishmen, but also of newcomers with other customs. The London accent has remained, now it is common among teenagers. He was influenced by Jamaican, Indian, and African English. The sound itself has changed, the vowels have become shorter, new words have been added. In addition, slang (sublanguage, Cockney dialect has a lot of labels!) It has spread beyond London, and some expressions throughout the English-speaking world. In response to the challenges of time, new expressions appear.

The cradle of Cockney is London, the very fact of the emergence of Cockney owes it to this city. One of the most multinational cities in the world, London lacks only one thing - the culture of its original indigenous population. Many journalists and researchers in London went in search of pearl kings and aspic eels, asking the same question: what happened to the Cockney? How recognizable and popular is it today?

150 years of tradition, but no one really knows where the Cockney language came from? There is an opinion among English-speaking researchers that the name comes from the idiom "cock's eggs", which in the most approximate translation means "unnatural object, freak" he name itself originated somewhere in the XIV century in the form of “cockeneyes”, implying deformed eggs (eggs), as if they were laid not by a chicken, but by a cock (cock). The term was originally used as a pejorative and even insulting to distinguish a weak citizen from a person hardened by difficulties working in the port. The name stuck and soon turned into a proud, defiant and independent one. Cathy Ross, an employee of the Docklands Museum explains: "There was a lot of fear of the working class in the nineteenth century, but at that time it re-emerged as a Cockney, meaning a lot to the empire and being almost part of the establishment. He became part of an alliance with the great-power chauvinism of the Edwardian era and was quite an acceptable face of the British urban working class.

Researcher Roy Porter expands on the Cockney theme in his work "London: Social Aspects of History". In particular, he writes: "The truth is that Cockneys are smart, wear witty outfits, perhaps shabby silk top hats - they are bright, sharp, have a strong optimism in his unwavering determination not only to make the best of things as they are, but also to provide everything with the highest degree of contempt for external circumstances."

Most of people believe that the term Cockney refers to any Londoner and actually means any incomprehensible chatter. Tourists and some taxi drivers still claim that a Cockney is someone who was born in the sound of bells (as we wrote above), but all this is relevant before the advent of cars and high-rise buildings, i.e. for times when bells were still really audible. Time and technological progress have shown that this definition is a little outdated. Although Cockneys locations are located from the central part of the city and up to EastEnders, they are not the only possible areas. Cockneys also live in the areas of Fulham, Battersea, Tottenham, Camden, Catford and Golders Green, as well as throughout Essex and Kent. Although they are traditionally white, working class, and Christian, many Cockneys now identify as Jewish, African American, or Indian. In the modern world, the place of birth and appearance are inferior to the palm of language proficiency the development of the consonantism of the London dialect of English.

One of the most famous representatives of the Cockney, or as he is called the "pearl king", Jimmy Janks, says that he is "proud that his costume is mother-of-pearl, proud that he is a Londoner, proud that he is a Cockney," but his children have no interest in following the tradition. "They're embarrassed by all this," Jimmy states. Indeed, there is an age problem. It is very rare to find a devoted Cockney among children and young people. Representatives of previous generations of Cockneys ask the question: if your own children do not support you, how can you expect someone else, someone outside, to understand the Cockney culture?

The main problem, according to the hero, is the disappearance of pubs. London pubs are really dying out. "Everywhere the pub is either closing, or has turned into a wine bar or an apartment. It's hard to find a good pub these days, with a piano. And if you can find a pub with a piano, you won't find anyone who could reproduce it. Take out the pubs and you lose the heart of Cockney neighborhoods," comments Jimmy Brewer. Pubs are important, first of all, as a means of social attraction, as a place of communication.

The Cockney pub has always been a place for families, but families have become less social with each other. This is partly a choice and partly because all pubs have now turned into places for 30-year-olds, where the presence of old and young together is no longer welcome. Families no longer work together as they once stood side by side behind market stalls. The fact is that pubs and markets are closely connected, and the market has changed a lot, and not only demographically. Many English researchers state the problem, which is the lack of cohesion and uniformity among Cockneys.

The Cockney language is considered to be the highlight and attraction of London, and recently ATMs were even released there, the menu of which was in this dialect.

To start, ATM customers need to enter "Huckleberry Finn" = PIN, then view the balance on "Charlie Sheen" = screen, or choose how much they need "sausage and mash" = mash, after which the request data is sent to "tank" = bank

List of literature

1. https://www.anglomania.org/2015/11/ockney-rhyming-slang.html.

2. https://inyaz.bobrodobro.ru/17894.

3. https://englex.ru/talking-about-cockney/.

Размещено на Allbest.ru