Cockney rhyming slang

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Cockney slang was once the most popular form of slang used in London, especially around the East London area. It was mainly used by poor white Londoners(now referred to as White Working class for political reasons) as a means of communication (19th-20th century).

Cockney rhyming slang works by mainly replacing a word with rhyming words,for example:

Apples and Pairs: stairs.
Trouble and strife:Wife.
Dog and Bone:phone.
Whistle and flute: suit

See more here:https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/lond...-cockney-rhyming-slang-words-and-phrases/amp/

Some words in Cockney slang do not rhyme with the original word but instead substitute it with another word. Old Bill(police), Flutter(bet), etc......

Speakers of cockney English were often looked down upon by upper class British and middle class brits
for the way their pronounced words and for the heavy usage of slang. When the British went to Asia and Africa,one of the main objectives of establishing schools was to create native folks who spoke “proper and correct English”. Cockney slang was also stereotyped and associated with criminality and unemployment.

As many parts of London were affected by an influx of middle class whites (gentrification) and foreigners (immigration), cockney speakers have been pushed out to the fringes of London or outside London. Some have accumulated enough wealth to buy houses in middle class areas and so their children/grandchildren speak different to the way their generation spoke.

In the last decade some right wing papers have picked up on the decline of Cockney rhyming slang. The Daily mail has published a few articles blaming immigration for the decline of Cockney rhyming slang:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ondon-borough-70-000-immigrants-moved-in.html


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-dying-25s-don-t-didgeridoo-phrases-mean.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-east-Dialect-likely-heard-Essex-London.html


There are obviously clearly racist overtones to some of these articles. While this form of slang was often disencouraged and looked down upon by the British establishment, there is now some kind of weird nostalgia for Cockney rhyming slang because,errr, it is obviously more preferable to the slang of blackies and brownies.


The slang used in major UK cities is now mainly inspired by the Afro Carribean migrant communities and their cousins in the USA via the medium of urban music. The USA influence on UK slang has decreased in the last few years due to the rise of alternative UK music genres (Grime etc). A few Arabic words (Aki) and one or two Somali words are creeping into the slang of London.


# Suugo linguistics
#Beat the bakhti mindset
# Jigjiga
#Ban khat
 
Are they speaking in code so that others don't understand them idgi? The rhyming words have 0 connection with the original word apart from rhyming.
 
Are they speaking in code so that others don't understand them idgi? The rhyming words have 0 connection with the original word apart from rhyming.
According to some it was created by market traders so they can change prices without people knowing..... And some of the words my relate to the criminal underground’s desire to evade the police ( London produced some of the most famous gangsters like the Krays).
 
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