A crash course in Cockney Rhyming Slang

So you would like to speak like a pukka cockney? Well in truth; you probably already have. I just did. To be 'pukka' is to be 'pukka spiel' or 'real'. There are dozens of these subtle little example that have snuck their way into the common lexis that we use today. For instance, ever told someone they are talking a load of cobblers? Well actually you are telling them they are talking a load of cobbler's awls, or balls. Also, have you ever wondered where a word like 'berk' ever squeezed its way into English? Well you will find it in the the dictionary defined as 'a silly or foolish person', the harsh reality is it came from 'Berkeley Hunt'. It begins with a C, ends in a T, and no it's not clot.

 

Well, there's enough fooling around with interesting and sometimes cringe worthy facts, lets get onto the fun stuff. Fiona McClymont from the Guardian says that the basic structure of cockney rhyming slang is that you think of a two worded phrase where the second word rhymes with the original word you were trying to write. Let's look at an example that almost everyone knows; Stairs. Some words that rhyme with stairs could include tears, cares, chairs or as many know it as; pears. Then you have to think of a second word that it can link to. This link can either be a name of a place with two words, like 'Hampstead Heath' (teeth), 'Eroll Flynn' (chin) or even 'the Khyber Pass' (arse). Or it could be linked like the in our example; with a semantic similarity, such as 'Apples and Pears' (stairs), 'Pen and Ink' (stink) or 'Trouble and Strife' (wife – how appropriate). Now that you have your couple, clip the second word off (or make an ellipsis, to those more familiar with lexical formation), and there you have your Cockney rhyming slang. Your stairs become apples, your wife becomes trouble, and your arse becomes a Khyber. Nothing could be easier!

 

However, now that you have gained this new skill, some will tell you that it is an out-of-date, obsolete and now useless Victorian antique that nobody uses any more, well those people will be wrong. According to the Guardian in 2009 a series of ATM machines have been made to request your 'Huckleberry Finn' (pin) and instead with give you a 'Speckled Hen' (ten). So if you are ever stuck in the middle of East London with no cash, with a bank card and you need a taxi home, now you know how to get hold of some of your Bugs Bunny! It's a service I provide, you know...

 

Chris Church