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Tag Archives: Cockney
The Brooklyn Accent (And the City it Stands For)
Like almost any theatre student in New York, I spent my share of time during college at the Drama Book Shop. Naturally, I always gravitated toward the voice and speech section of the shelf. I remember browsing through a book … Continue reading
‘Hey!’ and its Variants
The word ‘hey’ has been around for a good thousand years or so (probably more). A remarkably versatile little word, it can be used in American English in any number of contexts. For example, to express annoyance: “Hey! Stop doing … Continue reading
Inner-City Dialects
This week’s Economist features an article about the Kiezdeutsch dialect of German, mostly spoken by inner-city youth. One may recognize controversies similar to those about non-standard English: ‘purists’ argue that Kiezdeutsh is bad/lazy German, while linguists see it is a legitimate variant of … Continue reading
Bidder Budder Badder: The Extent of T-tapping
Americans like myself ‘tap’ the ‘t’ in between vowels. This means that the ‘t’ in ‘butter’ is pronounced not with a /t/ sound, but rather with the ‘r’ consonant in Spanish ‘pero.’ The common impression, though, is that ‘t’ becomes … Continue reading
Posted in English Phonetics Tagged Cockney, Estuary English, phonetics, Received Pronunciation (RP) 32 Comments
Anovver Fing About Th-Fronting
In our discussions of dialect evolution in the UK, a common denominator is th-fronting. To review: th-fronters turn ‘th‘ words into ‘f’ or ‘v’ words: ‘thing’ becomes ‘fing,’ ‘bother’ becomes ‘bovver,’ and ‘both’ becomes ‘bof.’ It’s a feature common in … Continue reading
Multicultural London ‘Oo’
One of English’s most rapidly evolving dialects is what is known as Multicultural London English (MLE). In a nutshell, MLE is a ‘young’ dialect (one might mark the birthday cutoff at 1970) that incorporates elements of Caribbean English and other ‘non-native’ … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged Cockney, Multicultural London English (Jafaican), phonetics 20 Comments
Is the Glasgow Accent Being “Cockneyfied?”
I’ve often discussed Estuary English, the London-influenced accent spreading throughout England. One piece of evidence? Young people in Glasgow seem to be adopting ‘Cockney’ pronunciations. If the Glasgow accent is indeed becoming more ‘Southeastern,’ this would be a powerful indicator of London’s … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged Cockney, Estuary English, Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic, scottish accents 35 Comments
Multicultural London English is not “Jafaican”
The Telegraph’s Ed West recently published an editorial titled Jafaican may be cool but it sounds ridiculous, that I find appalling. I respect West for having politics different from my own, but that’s no excuse for slandering a legitimate dialect … Continue reading
The “Trubbow” with L-Vocalization
Listen to a three-year-old say “doll,” and it will probably sound like “dow.” Along the same lines, a young child’s “trouble” becomes “trubbow,” “fall” becomes “foe,” “bell” becomes “bew.” Or so it sounds to the average listener. This is what is … Continue reading
Learn an Accent in 3 Minutes! (A Rant)
A while back I posted something about “accent savants” on Youtube. These are people with a knack for dialects who post videos of themselves imitating Cockneys, Americans, Irishmen or some other nationality. I find these videos harmless fun, even as … Continue reading