Would you Adam and Eve it? Cockney is no longer a dominant accent in London and southeast England.
After studying the dialects of a group of 18-33 year olds from southeast England, researchers from the University of Essex have found there has been a change in dialects among younger people.
Three accents now dominate in the region, project leader Dr Amanda Cole told Nights.
Photo: AFP
"We found three dominant accents, but we didn't find Cockney or Queen's English. So, it seems that young people aren't speaking with those accents, or at least, they're not the main accents spoken in the region.”
The accents replacing them are estuary English, standard southern British English and multi-cultural London English, she says.
Estuary English most closely resembles Cockney, Cole says.
“It's somewhere closer to Cockney, but maybe a slightly more muted version of Cockney.
“And the other accent is standard southern British-English, which again, is similar to Queen's English, but it's slightly toned down.
"It's still perceived as standard and prestigious, and people still think of it as neutral all of which are obviously just value judgments and are not true.”
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The final accent, which has emerged most recently, is multi-cultural London English, she says.
“It's thought to have started in the ‘80s in East London, in these very linguistically and ethnically diverse communities in East London.
"There's a lot in common with Cockney and other southern accents, but also there are lots of features that have come from other dialects of English and other languages.”
The accent is associated with forms of rap music particular to Britain such as grime, she says.
“It is an accent that faces a lot of prejudice and a lot of stigma in Britain, as do a lot of accents, including estuary English, a lot of people see it as like being a broken language, a fake language, like a sort of form of language decay, which of course is completely not true.
"But I think because of those sort of attitudes and biases towards that accent, the people who speak it can face a lot of disadvantages."
The change happening in London and its environs can be seen throughout the linguistically diverse UK, she says. She calls it “dialect levelling.”
“One of the big things that leads to dialect levelling or language change, is this sort of constant idea that there is this correct or standard way of speaking, there's a national standard of English, or there's a southern standard way of speaking, a northern standard way of speaking.
“And these ideas are really common across the country. People don't want to speak in a way that's stigmatised or in a way that holds them back. Or that's seen as very regional. So I think people can sometimes often deliberately, or even unconsciously, try and leave their accent behind and end up speaking in this way.”
Her own background is working class Essex; her grandparents, along with thousands of others, moved out of the East End to the neighbouring county.
“Hundreds of thousands of people moved out throughout the 20th century from East London. Part of the reason for that was a series of government-led slum clearance programs.
‘They weren't officially called that, but they were moving people out of impoverished and overcrowded areas in East London, to purpose-built estates and towns in other areas, particularly in Essex, both sets of my grandparents were moved in those programmes to Essex.”
And with them came their dialect, she says.
“My grandparents did speak in Cockney rhyming slang, and they had very strong Cockney accents.”
But gradually those old Cockney phrases and linguistic tics faded, she says.
“All of a sudden, they, along with lots of other people, found themselves living in these very sort of suburban areas in Essex, where people didn't use rhyming slang.
“I think that's been part of part of the issue with rhyming slang a lot of people don't understand it. So, you're not going to use it if you walk into a shop and that person is not going to know the word that you're saying.”
