We have grown up with the expectation that
London, particularly the East, is filled with charming Cockneys. One expects
London streets to be filled with people doffing their cap with an "Awright
geeezza". Or to hear a vocalisation of surprise not dissimilar to
"Gaaaaawd blimey; yer 'avin' a giraffe!" Instead, one walks down the
street to the sounds of teeth sucking and people going '"O.M.G".
The true Cockney, seen in films such as
Mary Poppins and Oliver!, is gone. The occasional one might be selling actual
apples and pears, or coming to fix your gas boiler with a smiley disposition,
but they are becoming a rare sight in London. If one wants to see lots of
Cockneys in one place, visit Whitstable in Kent. The seaside town is full of
tube and taxi drivers talking in colourful accents and rhymes. But not in
London.
Instead, London is frequented by teenagers
who hang about in car parks, constantly asking each other
"D'yew know wot I'm sayin'?" and
"D'yew ge' me, like?". These two phrases are usually interspersed by
simple nouns and verbs to create something reminiscent of a 'sentence'.
Of course, there is a slight hint of
Cockneyism in how they talk now, and people will still call each other
"mate" or "darling", but little else remains. London is
full of professional suit wearers, who talk in
business jargon drivel, foreigners speaking their native tongues, and
unemployed tracksuit wearers, who speak in, like, bad similes.
The Cockney is now nearly as dead as a
Dodo, so don't go expecting Dick Van Dyke to be gracing the streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment