“Cock's egg”

 Etymologically the word Cockney means “cock's egg”, coming from cokene, the old genitive of cock (OE cocc, kok), plus ey (Medieval English ey. Cf. German Ei, “egg”).

 Stage I (14th century): misshapen, malformed egg.  Stage II (late 14th and 15th century): pampered, spoilt child.  Stage III (16th century): any city dweller of any city (as opposed to countrymen).  Stage IV (17th century): a Londoner born within the sound of Bow Bells, Cheapside.  Stage V (18th century): Londoners and their dialect.

 It is a variety of British English.  The working-class speech of London.  A true Cockney is anyone born within the sound of the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside.  Cockney enters the domain of Sociolinguistics.

The heartland of Cockney

 1. H-dropping (also in most other parts of England) Ø hammer, hit  2. G-dropping (also in most other kinds of English) ɪ n, n ̩ rather than ɪ ŋ running, feeding, morning  3. TH fronting/stopping (spreading geographically) θ, ð -> f, v think, rather ð -> d / #_ this and that

 4. Yod dropping/coalescence (of yod after an alveolar consonant) j -> Ø / n _ [V, +stress] new, neutral and either dropping j -> Ø / t, d_ tune, duke or coalescence tune, duke

 5. [ej] -> [aj] mate, gain.  6. [aj] -> [Øj] high, flighty, might.  7. [au] -> [a] mouse, house.  8. [u] -> [eu] who, new, blue.

9. Glottalization /t/ -> [ ʔ ] That table [ðæ ʔ te ɪ bl] Get down [ge ʔ da ʊ n] Football [f ʊʔ b ɔː l] That is that easy [ðæ ʔ ɪ z ðæ ʔ i ː zi] Saturday [sæ ʔ ə de ɪ ]

 Multiple negation I ain’t never done nothing.  Verb morphology You see ‘im! – I never! They done it. You was.  Reflexive pronouns ‘E’ll ‘urt ‘isself. That’s yourn.  Demonstratives Them books.

 Adverbs without –ly or use of adjectives instead Trains are running normal. The boys done good.  Prepositions Down the pub, up her nan’s, out the window.  Other non-standard forms Where’s me bag? Me don’t like it.

 Rhyming Slang is a kind of slang in which a word is replaced by another word or phrase that rhymes with it.  Adam and Eve: believe. E g. “Would you Adam 'n' Eve it?”  Bread and Honey: money. E.g. “I've run out of bread and honey.”  Chine Plate: mate. E.g. “I can’t do it by myself. I need a China Mate.”

Pat Malone= alone Jim Skinner= dinner Jimmy Riddle= piddle (urinate) Jack O'Brien= Train

 “It's owt [two] bob”.  yob (sometimes modified to yobbo) for “boy”.  elrig for “girl”  shif for “fish”  eno for “one”  erth for “three”

David Beckham Eliza Doolittle Gary Oldman