+ 33 (0)6 25 31 08 81 Uri Sluckin Tradwell uri@tradwell.com

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C’est la rentrée, un mot formidable pour décrire la fin de la trêve estivale, en politique, travail ou enseignement. Il n’y a pas d’équivalent en anglais, pourtant 5 fois plus riche en mots (300 000 dans le Petit Robert et 600 000 dans l’Oxford English Dictionary, although they say the real number is almost double).

Tradwell fait sa rentrée aussi, dans la joie et la bonne humeur avec une petite leçon d’argot londonien or the Cockney rhyming slang.

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There are 3 versions: Classic: apples and pears = stairs, dustbin lids = kids, butcher’s hook = look,

Modern: Jimmy Choos = shoes, Vera Lynns = skins = cigarette rolling papers,

and Mockney: fake, pretending to be Cockney by not pronouncing haitches (letter h) or swallowing “t”s (we won’t bother with Mockney).

Cockney rhyming slang expressions are formulated by finding words that rhyme and describe the word (object, feeling, etc.), in a straight or roundabout way.

Straight is fairly easy (bees and honey = money), roundabout often needs explanation (oily rag = fag = cigarette – that comes from the dirty jobs being done by smokers), pissed as in being drunk as in Brahms and Liszt = pissed or my old china = china plate = mate (friend).

It has not been conclusively proven whether rhyming slang was a linguistic accident, a game, or a « dialect » developed intentionally to confuse strangers. It is possible that it was used by the market traders to fool the punters and fix prices without customers knowing what they were saying. Another suggestion is that it may have been used by prisoners to confound wardens.

I personally believe that it evolved to create and maintain a community.

It is neither a language nor a dialect, it’s a collection of expressions used everyday to describe objects, feelings or actions.

However, you will not often hear the full expression, as in « I’m going up the apples (and pears) to see if the trouble (and strife) put the dustbins (dustbin lids) to bed », with « trouble and strife » meaning wife or ‘er indoors.

Classic slang is still widely used in East London and Islington rub-a-dubs (pubs), where you may hear « what’s the damage » as in how much do I owe you for the round of drinks I’ve just ordered.

Money is one of the favourite subjects in slang and names are given to amounts: a nicker is a pound (you’ll hear an Alan, from Alan Whicker, a popular TV presenter = nicker), Lady Godiva is 5 pounds (Lady Godiva = fiver). Modern slang has money calls too, 15 pounds is a Commodore as in their hit song Three Times a Lady (three times Lady Godiva = fiver).  It uses personalities to form new expressions, as in Ayron Senna = tenner = 10 pounds.

If your girlfriend is looking for her Jimmys she can’t remember where she put her shoes (Jimmy Choos = Shoes). Vera Lynn (postwar female British Frank Sinatra) used to mean gin, but now when someone asks if you have any Veras, it’s about cigarette rolling papers (Vera Lynns = skins).

It’s easy to invent new expressions, try finding a new rhyme, use it a few times when out and about and you may hear it next time being used by complete strangers! Go on, use your loaf (as in use your head = think) « loaf of bread »= head and become a modern Cockney – how about Kylie Jenner = tenner for ten pounds; Ayrton Senna, although still number one with afcionados, is being slowly forgotten by the new blow-friendly generation.

For more, to get the rhythm, I recommend you visit the Chapel Market and a pub in Pentonville Road or Penton Street in London. Pick one or two cockney phrases or expressions and use them, even with a foreign accent, which has become standard in London, you’ll be more than welcome.