Migration and evolution

Recent linguistic research suggests that today, certain elements of Cockney English are declining in usage within the East End of London and the accent has migrated to Outer London and the Home Counties: in London's East End, some traditional features of Cockney have been displaced by a Jamaican Creole-influenced variety popular among young Londoners (sometimes referred to as "Jafaican"), particularly, though far from exclusively, those of Afro-Caribbean descent.[] Nevertheless, the glottal stop, double negatives, and the vocalization of the dark L (and other features of Cockney speech), along with some rhyming slang terms are still in common usage.

A July 2010 report by Paul Kerswill, Professor of Sociolinguistics at Lancaster University, called Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition and diffusion of a new variety, claimed that the Cockney accent will disappear from London's streets within 30 years.[] The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, said the accent, which has been around for more than 500 years, is being replaced in London by a new hybrid language. "Cockney in the East End is now transforming itself into Multicultural London English, a new, melting-pot mixture of all those people living here who learnt English as a second language", Prof Kerswill said.[]

Conversely, migration of Cockney speakers has led to migration of the dialect. In Essex, towns that mostly grew up from post-war migration out of London (e.g. Basildon and Harlow) often have a strong Cockney influence on local speech. However, the early dialect researcher Alexander John Ellis believed that Cockney developed due to the influence of Essex dialect on London speech.[12] In recent years the dialect has moved out of inner-city London towards the outskirts of Greater London. Today Cockney-speaking areas include parts of Hertfordshire, Kent,

Canvey Island, Dagenham, Barking, Brentwood, Romford, Chigwell, Harlow, Tottenham, Enfield, Basildon, Thurrock, Cheshunt, Bexley, Sidcup, Welling, Berkshire, Eltham, Islington and Brimsdown.[13][14]

Cockney speech

Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and occasionally use rhyming slang. The Survey of English

Dialects took a recording from a long-time resident of Hackney, and the BBC made another recording in 1999 which showed how the accent had changed.[15][16]

John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1859, makes reference to "their use of a peculiar slang language" when describing the costermongers of London's East End. In terms of other slang, there are also several borrowings from Yiddish, including kosher (originally Hebrew, via Yiddish, meaning legitimate) and stumm (/ʃtʊm/ originally German, via Yiddish, meaning quiet),[17] as well as Romany, for example wonga (meaning money, from the Romany "wanga" meaning coal),[18] and cushty (from the Romany kushtipen, meaning good). A fake Cockney accent is sometimes called "Mockney".

Typical features

•As with many accents of England, Cockney is non-rhotic. A final -er is pronounced [ə] or lowered [ɐ] in broad Cockney. As with all or nearly all non-rhotic accents, the paired lexical sets commA and lettER, PALM/BATH and START, THOUGHT and NORTH/FORCE, are merged. Thus, the last syllable of words such as cheetah can be

pronounced [ɐ] as well in broad Cockney.[19][][]

•Broad /ɑː/ is used in words such as bath, path, demand. This originated in London in the 16th-17th centuries and is also part of Received Pronunciation (RP).[]

•T-glottalization: use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions,[20][21] including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently for /k/ and /p/, and occasionally for mid-word consonants.

For example, Richard Whiteing spelt "Hyde Park" as Hy′ Par′. Like, "lie" and light can be homophones. "Clapham" can be said as Cla'am.[] /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically, e.g. utter [ˈaɾɐ]. London /p, t, k/ are

often aspirated in intervocalic and final environments, e.g., upper [ˈapʰɐ], utter [ˈatˢɐ], rocker [ˈɹɒkʰɐ], up [apʰ], out [ˈæə̯tˢ], rock [ɹɒkʰ], where RP is traditionally described as having the unaspirated variants. Also, in broad

Cockney at least, the degree of aspiration is typically greater than in RP, and may often also involve some degree of affrication. Affrication may be encountered in initial, intervocalic, and final position.[22][23]

•This feature results in Cockney being often mentioned in textbooks about Semitic languages while explaining how to pronounce the glottal stop.

•Th-fronting:[24]

•/θ/ can become [f] in any environment. [fɪn] "thin", [mɛfs] "maths".

•/ð/ can become [v] in any environment except word-initially when it can be [ð, ð̞, d, l, ʔ, ]. [dæɪ] "they", [bɒvə] "bother".[25][26]

•Yod-coalescence in words such as tune [ˈtʃʰʉːn] or reduce [ɹɪˈdʒʉːs] (compare traditional RP [ˈtjuːn, ɹɪˈdjuːs]).[27]

•H-dropping. Sivertsen considers that [h] is to some extent a stylistic marker of emphasis in Cockney.[28][29]

•Diphthong alterations:[30]

•/iː/ → [əi~ɐi]:[][31] [bəiʔ] "beet"

•/eɪ/ → [æɪ~aɪ]:[32] [bæɪʔ] "bait"

•/aɪ/ → [ɑɪ] or even [ɒɪ] in "vigorous, dialectal" Cockney. The second element may be reduced or absent (with compensatory lengthening of the first element), so that there are variants such as [ɑ̟ə~ɑ̟ː]. This means that

pairs such as laugh-life, Barton-biting may become homophones: [lɑːf], [bɑːʔn̩]. But this neutralisation is an optional, recoverable one:[] [bɑɪʔ] "bite"

•/ɔɪ/ → [ɔ̝ɪ~oɪ]:[] [ˈtʃʰoɪs] "choice"

•/uː/ → [əʉ] or a monophthongal [ʉː], perhaps with little lip rounding, [ɨː] or [ʊː]:[][33] [bʉːʔ] "boot"

•/əʊ/ → this diphthong typically starts in the area of the London /ʌ/, [æ ̠~ɐ]. The endpoint may be [ʊ], but more

commonly it is rather opener and/or lacking any lip rounding, thus being a kind of centralized [ɤ̈]. The broadest Cockney variant approaches [aʊ]:[34] [kʰɐɤ̈ʔ] "coat"

•/aʊ/ may be [æə] or a monophthongal [æː~aː]:[35] [tˢæən] "town"

•Other vowel differences include

•/æ/ may be [ɛ] or [ɛɪ], with the latter occurring before voiced consonants, particularly before /d/:[][36] [bɛk] "back", [bɛːɪd] "bad"

•/ɛ/ may be [eə], [eɪ], or [ɛɪ] before certain voiced consonants, particularly before /d/:[][37][38][39] [beɪd] "bed"

•/ɒ/ may be a somewhat less open [ɔ]:[] [kʰɔʔ] "cot"

•/ɑː/ has a fully back variant, qualitatively equivalent to cardinal 5, which Beaken (1971) claims characterizes "vigorous, informal" Cockney.[]

•/ɜː/ is on occasion somewhat fronted and/or lightly rounded, giving Cockney variants such as [ɜ̟ː], [œ̈ː].[]

•/ʌ/ → [ɐ̟] or a quality like that of cardinal 4, [a]:[][40] [dʒamʔˈtˢapʰ] "jumped up"

•/ɔː/ → [oː] or a closing diphthong of the type [oʊ~ɔo] when in non-final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney:[41][] [soʊs] "sauce"-"source", [loʊd] "lord", [ˈwoʊʔə] "water"

•/ɔː/ → [ɔː] or a centring diphthong of the type [ɔə~ɔwə] when in final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney; thus [sɔə] "saw"-"sore"-"soar", [lɔə] "law"-"lore", [wɔə] "war"-"wore". The

diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause can contrast with bored [bɔəd] and paws [pʰɔəz][]

•/əʊ/ becomes something around [ɒʊ~ɔo] or even [aɤ] in broad Cockney before dark l. These variants are retained when the addition of a suffix turns the dark l clear. Thus a phonemic split has occurred in London English, exemplified by the minimal pair wholly [ˈhɒʊli] vs. holy [ˈhɐɤ̈li]. The development of L-vocalization (see next section) leads to further pairs such as sole-soul [sɒʊ] vs. so-sew [sɐɤ̈], bowl [bɒʊ] vs. Bow [bɐɤ̈], shoulder [ˈʃɒʊdə] vs. odour [ˈɐɤ̈də], while associated vowel neutralisations may make doll a homophone of dole, compare dough [dɐɤ̈]. All this reinforces the phonemic nature of the opposition and increases its

functional load. It is now well-established in all kinds of London-flavoured accents, from broad Cockney to near-RP.[42]

•Vocalisation of dark L, hence [mɪowɔː] for Millwall. The actual realization of a vocalized /l/ is influenced by

surrounding vowels and it may be realized as [u], [ʊ], [o] or [ɤ]. It is also transcribed as a semivowel [w] by some linguists, e.g., Coggle and Rosewarne.[43] Relatedly, there are many possible vowel neutralisations and absorptions in the context of a following "dark L" ([ɫ]) or its vocalised version; these include:[44]

•In broad Cockney, and to some extent in general popular London speech, a vocalised /l/ is entirely absorbed by

a preceding /ɔː/: i.e., salt and sort become homophones (although the contemporary pronunciation of salt /sɒlt/[45] would prevent this from happening), and likewise fault-fought-fort, pause-Paul's, Morden-Malden,

water-Walter. Sometimes such pairs are kept apart, in more deliberate speech at least, by a kind of length difference: [ˈmɔʊdn̩] Morden vs. [ˈmɔʊːdn̩] Malden.

•A preceding /ə/ is also fully absorbed into vocalised /l/. The reflexes of earlier /əl/ and earlier /ɔː(l)/ are thus phonetically similar or identical; speakers are usually ready to treat them as the same phoneme. Thus awful can best be regarded as containing two occurrences of the same vowel, /ˈɔːfɔː/. The difference between musical and music-hall, in an H-dropping broad Cockney, is thus nothing more than a matter of stress and perhaps syllable boundaries.

•With the remaining vowels a vocalised /l/ is not absorbed, but remains phonetically present as a back vocoid in such a way that /Vl/ and /V/ are kept distinct.

•The clearest and best-established neutralisations are those of /ɪ~iː~ɪə/ and /ʊ~uː~ʊə/. Thus rill, reel and real fall together in Cockney as [ɹɪɤ]; while full and fool are [foʊ~fʊu] and may rhyme with cruel [ˈkʰɹʊu]. Before clear (i.e., prevocalic) /l/ the neutralisations do not usually apply, thus [ˈsɪli] silly but [ˈsɪilɪn] ceiling-sealing, [ˈfʊli] fully but [ˈfʊulɪn] fooling.

•In some broader types of Cockney, the neutralisation of /ʊ~uː~ʊə/ before non-prevocalic /l/ may also involve /ɔː/, so that fall becomes homophonous with full and fool [fɔo].

•The other pre-/l/ neutralisation which all investigators agree on is that of /æ~eɪ~aʊ/. Thus, Sal and sale can be merged as [sæɤ], fail and fowl as [fæɤ], and Val, vale-veil and vowel as [væɤ]. The typical pronunciation of railway is [ˈɹæʊwæɪ].

•According to Siversten, /ɑː/ and /aɪ/ can also join in this neutralisation. They may on the one hand neutralise with respect to one another, so that snarl and smile rhyme, both ending [-ɑɤ], and Child's Hill is in danger of being mistaken for Charles Hill; or they may go further into a fivefold neutralisation with the one just mentioned, so that pal, pale, foul, snarl and pile all end in [-æɤ]. But these developments are evidently restricted to broad Cockney, not being found in London speech in general.

•A neutralisation discussed by Beaken (1971) and Bowyer (1973), but ignored by Siversten (1960), is that of /ɒ~əʊ~ʌ/. It leads to the possibility of doll, dole and dull becoming homophonous as [dɒʊ] or [da̠ɤ]. Wells' impression is that the doll-dole neutralisation is rather widespread in London, but that involving dull less so.

•One further possible neutralisation in the environment of a following non-prevocalic /l/ is that of /ɛ/ and /ɜː/, so that well and whirl become homophonous as [wɛʊ].

•Cockney has been occasionally described as replacing /ɹ/ with /w/. For example, thwee (or fwee) instead of three, fwasty instead of frosty. Peter Wright, a Survey of English Dialects fieldworker, concluded that this was not a

universal feature of Cockneys but that it was more common to hear this in the London area than anywhere else in Britain.[46] This description may also be a result of mishearing the labiodental R as /w/, when it is still a distinct

phoneme in Cockney.

•An unstressed final -ow may be pronounced [ə]. In broad Cockney this can be lowered to [ɐ].[][] This is common to most traditional, Southern English dialects except for those in the West Country.[47]

•Grammatical features:[28]

•Use of me instead of my, for example, "At's me book you got 'ere". Cannot be used when "my" is emphasised (i.e., "At's my book you got 'ere" (and not "his")).

•Use of ain't

•Use of double negatives, for example "I ditn't see nuffink."[48]