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In British English, the term mockney (a Portmanteau of "mock" and "Cockney") has come to be used, predominantly in the media, to describe those who present themselves as Cockneys (or, by extension, other working-class groups) with the intention of gaining popular credibility. A stereotypical Mockney comes from a middle or upper-middle class background in England's Home Counties. Diagram showing the geographical locations of selected languages and dialects of the British Isles. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term cockney refers to working-class inhabitants of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... The phrase Home Counties is used to designate the group of English counties which border or surround London. ...

The mockney speaks, or attempts to speak, in some variant of Estuary English, an accent which resembles the working-class London accent popularly known as "Cockney" (although spoken by many who are not Cockneys at all.) Mockneys, however, do not always use all features of Estuary English, especially if they come from another dialect area. For example, some Mockneys use glottal stops and render the "a" in "face" as [ʌɪ], but they do not pronounce "I" as [ɑɪ]. Estuary English is a name given to the form of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the river Thames and its estuary. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...

A large mistake arises when people believe "cockney" to be an accent. Cockney is in fact a language. To distinguish between mockney and cockney is simple. Take the following sentence, "This doesn't make any sense." For this to be said as a mockney, it would read, "This dozen make any sense." However; cockney is a lack of understanding of the english language. Perhaps a cockney would say... "That don't make no sense."

It is an affectation sometimes adopted for aesthetic purposes, other times just to sound "cool" or in attempt to generate street credibility. The phenomenon was first named in the mid-1990s and was made famous in describing Britpop bands such as Blur and, on occasions, politicians such as Tony Blair. Mick Jagger is often accused of having been the first celebrity in modern times to overplay his regional accent in order to boost his street credibility. Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe the above. ... Britpop was a British alternative rock genre and movement that was at its most popular in Great Britain in the mid 1990s. ... Blur are an English rock band formed in Colchester in 1989. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the UK Labour Party, and Member of the UK Parliament... Sir Michael Phillip Mick Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician, actor, songwriter, record and film producer, and businessman. ...

Other celebrities who are, or have been accused of being mockneys include:

• Ben Elton His false London accent and socialist patter proved a key to his success. Famous for his catchphrase: "Round our way..."
• Chef Jamie Oliver. Probably the most famous mockney of all. Born in Essex.
• Guy Ritchie stepson of a baronet, educated at independent schools.
• Brandon Flowers, of The Killers
• Jo Brand, Comedienne
• Russell Brand, Comedian. Born in Essex.
• Keith Allen Comedian/ Actor
• Lily Allen, private school educated singer/rapper, daughter of Keith Allen
• Donny Tourette, lead singer of Punk rock band Towers of London
• Zara PhillipsGrandaughter of HRH Queen Elizabeth II
• Actor Jude Law.
• Madonna born, raised and educated in Bay City, Michigan, USA.
• Violinist Nigel Kennedy, "Monster Cockney" Aston Villa fan. Born in Brighton.
• DJ and former Big Breakfast presenter Johnny Vaughan.
• Pop band The Kooks
• Damon Albarn.
• Musician Mike Skinner, who is originally from Birmingham, an area with a completely different regional accent .[1]
• Vinnie Jones, alleged "Cockney hard man". Born in Hertfordshire.
• Mark Lamarr, chirpy "Cockney" presenter. Born in Swindon.
• Graham McPherson, aka Suggs, Madness frontman. Born in Hastings.
• Joe Brown, singer, musician and "Bermondsey Boy". Born in Lincolnshire.
• Bob Hoskins, actor and petite "Cockney Geezer". Born in Suffolk.
• Frank Lampard, educated at £10,000 a year public school, professional footballer with Chelsea FC and England, son of Frank Lampard Sr..

The term has also been used to describe Dick Van Dyke's execrable cockney accent in the film Mary Poppins. In the film Time Bandits, one of Robin Hood's men speaks mockney so thickly, that Robin needs a translator to understand him. Thieves, criminals, prostitutes (Jack the Ripper films), and English pirates in films often use an exaggerated version of cockney to emphasize the atmosphere of lower class old London, no matter where in England the character is from. Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May 1959) is an English comedian and writer. ... James Trevor Oliver, MBE (May 27, 1975), better known as Jamie Oliver and The Naked Chef, is an English celebrity chef. ... Essex is a county in the East of England. ... Guy Ritchie (born 10th September 1968 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire[1]) is an English writer-director. ... Brandon Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is the vocalist and keyboardist in the American synth rock band The Killers. ... The Killers are a Grammy nominated and American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Joanne Brand was born 3rd May 1957 in Hastings, East Sussex. ... Russell Edward Brand [1] (born June 4, 1975 in Grays, Essex) is an English comedian and radio/television personality. ... Essex is a county in the East of England. ... Keith Allen (born 2 September 1953 in Gorseinon, Swansea, Wales) is a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and writer. ... Lily Rose Beatrice Allen[1] (born May 2, 1985) is an English pop artist, currently signed to Regal/Parlophone (EMI), and known for songs such as Smile and LDN. She is the daughter of actor/comedian/musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. ... Donny Tourette is the lead singer of British punk rock band Towers of London which he founded together with his brother Dirk. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Towers of London are a controversial punk rock band from London, England who formed in 2004. ... Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips MBE (born 15 May 1981) is the only daughter of Princess Anne and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. ... David Jude Heyworth Law (born December 29, 1972) is an Academy Award nominated English actor, who is known as Jude Law. ... Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as Madonna, is a five-time Grammy award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... Bay City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. ... Nigel Kennedy (born December 28, 1956 in Brighton, England) is a violinist and violist. ... Aston Villa Football Club is an English football (soccer) club. ... For other places with the same name, see Brighton (disambiguation). ... Johnny Randall Vaughan (born July 16, 1966) is a British writer and broadcaster. ... The Kooks are a Indie Rock band originating from Brighton, England. ... Damon Albarn, (born March 23, 1968 in Leytonstone, London), is an English singer-songwriter who gained fame as the lead singer of rock band Blur. ... Mike Skinner (born 27 November 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a rapper from West Heath, Birmingham, England. ... This article is about the city in England. ... Brummie (sometimes Brummy) is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, UK, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum. ... Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965 in Watford) is an English footballer (although he later represented Wales) turned actor. ... Hertfordshire (pronounced Hartfordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom and part of the East of England Government Office region. ... Mark Lamarr on Never Mind The Buzzcocks Mark Lamarr (born Mark Ulsof Jones on January 7, 1967) is a British comedian and television presenter. ... Swindon is a town in Wiltshire in the South West of England. ... Suggs Suggs (born Graham McPherson on 13 January 1961 in Hastings), is a British singer, best known as a vocalist of the popular second wave ska band, Madness. ... Madness are an English pop band that formed in 1976. ... Shown within East Sussex Geography Status: Borough Region: South East England Historic County: Sussex Admin. ... Joe Brown (born Joseph Roger Brown on 13 May 1941, in Swarby, Lincolnshire) was a popular British entertainer of the 1960s and beyond. ... Bermondsey is a place in the London Borough of Southwark. ... Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. ... Robert William Bob Hoskins Jr. ... Suffolk (pronounced ) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in the East Anglia region of eastern England. ... Frank James Lampard, Jr. ... Chelsea Football Club (also known as the Blues, previously also known as the Pensioners), founded in 1905, is a Premier League football team that plays at Stamford Bridge football ground in west London. ... Frank Lampard, Sr. ... Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an Emmy-Award winning American television and movie actor, comedian and dancer. ... For the 2004 stage musical, see Mary Poppins (musical). ... Time Bandits (first released on July 13, 1981) is a fantasy film, produced and directed by Terry Gilliam (who created animations for Monty Pythons Flying Circus). ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ...

One explanation of dialect adoption given by social linguistics is prestige. A person is likely to adopt speech patterns (including accent, vocabulary, dialect or even language) which they perceive as 'prestigious'.

In times gone by, people across the UK would often go to great lengths to disguise or eradicate their regional accents, and would play up their position in the social hierarchy, to boost their image. Dialectal choice is a matter of identity. One might adopt the dialect of a group in order to gain acceptance within the group, so that adopting the dialects of the upper social classes has been an aid to social advancement. There has been within working class cultures, and some regional groups, a resistance to speech considered too refined or too City.

The use of mockney is an interesting phenomenon in that it appears that modern day celebrities are doing the exact opposite of what has been traditionally the case, that is, playing down their status in the social hierarchy to gain popularity. Perhaps this signifies a very significant change in attitudes towards one's position in Britain in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It follows the same patterns found in other cultures where urban culture has gained prestige, although to be a "cockney" is still perceived to be a negative attribute by many in the UK, for example in the West Country and in Northern England— a London accent, especially a pretended London accent, is not accepted nationwide as boosting "street cred", even within urban youth cultures. The West Country is an informal term for the area of south-western England encompasing the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. ... Northern England, The North or North of England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. ...

The concept of conversational divergence, either upwards or downwards in idiolect, can be seen in many social interactions, for example to put someone at ease by speaking in a familiar tone or inotation or to intimidate someone or alienate them by speaking in a more formal way than they are used to, for example in a court room where a more formal register will be used with technical legal jargon to intimidate a defendant. Accommodation Theory refers to a person altering their perceived accent and covers the concept of "mockneying". An idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. ...

It is similar to the American phenomenon of educated, middle and upper class African-Americans sometimes using African-American Vernacular English in an attempt to sound more socially adept. Languages Predominantly American English Religions Predominantly Christianity and Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called Ebonics, Black English, or Black English Vernacular (BEV) is a dialect of American English. ...

Some mockney words are old cockney, no longer used by modern cockneys in London. Some common exaggerated cockney/mockney words and phrases used in films are: This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

• barmy (crazy)
• coo! (wow!)
• bloomin'
• blimey
• cor blimey
• bloody 'ell
• 'ello guvna.
• Wot's all this then?
• mate
• luv
• dear/y
• bloke (fellow)
• treackle (doll)
• cheeky (smart mouth)
• silent h, r, or t
• th=f, as in anyfing (anything)
• nito (bollocks)south london term
• arry(skunk)
• oates(cocaine)

See also

• Cockney
• Estuary English
• Sociolinguistics

The term cockney refers to working-class inhabitants of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ... Estuary English is a name given to the form of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the river Thames and its estuary. ... Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used. ...

External links

• Mockney (Everything2 node)

Everything2, or E2 for short, is a collaborative Web-based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written material. ...

Sources

• Wot’s He Sayin’? British pop reclaims its accent.