RE: 'ow I spake
February 23, 2012 at 3:09 am
(This post was last modified: February 23, 2012 at 3:11 am by MrSkeptic.)
(February 23, 2012 at 2:03 am)padraic Wrote: When I was in Cambridge I mistook some blokes in a pub for Cockney;they spoke like Jamie Oliver.(is 'mockney' a Home Counties accent?)
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Trivia about Cockney: traditionally a person born within the sound of the bells of St Mary Le Bow. In the nineteenth century those bells would have been heard all over London. (according to Peter Ackroyd ,in 'London; The Biography')
Yes Padraic a 'mockney' is someone from the home counties (typically Essex), it is very similar to cockney, so much so that only a true cockney would probably be able to tell the difference. Typically cockneys were from the East End (as you say within earshot of the bells of St Mary Le Bow), but is now generally applied to all Londoners.
For such a small country the UK has a wonderful mix of accents, most of the ones you hear on TV are usually just a general southern one but there are some very strange and obscure regional ones! Listen out for the Scouse accent (from Liverpool), absolutely brilliant!
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true - Carl Sagan
