C. The Phonological Similarities Between The Slang Words And Their
Target Words
The writer picked frequently used slangs still widely on the use today by cockneyers in London. Meaning that they are slangs spoken by London-based
English speakers, not by other English speakers in other English speaking nations such as Australia, Canada, United States, etc. Therefore, the rhyme analysis will
follow British English pronunciation. The writer found some words that will be discussed in this section. The
words are different from previous section. The writer should do this in order to make easier explanation, because not all the way of pronunciation of the words
of cockney rhyming slang are on dictionary. Every words will have further analysis about their syllables understanding.
The syllable has a hierarchical structure. It is divided into onset and rhyme. Rhyme is divided into two, they are nucleus and coda. The first slang
word that the writer is going to analyze is Barnet fair. The word fair shorthened word of Barnet fair, [f] is voiceless labiodental fricative and [e] is a mid front
short, [ ǝ ] is mid central short. We can draw the Barnet fair is a slang word for
hair , which has the same last syllables as fair. The difference between fair and
hair is in the onset h is voiceless glottal glide. It means that these two words
have the same features of their last phonemes.
Figure 1
feә Fair
Onset Rhyme
f Nucleus Coda
e ә
ø
The other word that has the same structure is late le
I
t and the slang form is bait be
I
t from the phrase tiddler‟s bait. The difference of these words
is only on their first phoneme l and b, both l and b are [+voiced] and l is alveolar lateral and b is bilabial stop.
Figure 2
r ӕŋk Rank
Onset Rhyme
r Nucleus
Coda
ӕ ŋ k
The second word is J.Arthur Rank, shortened Rank, in Cockney rhyming slang only the last word is used. Rank has one onset [r],one nucleus [æ], and two
coda [ŋ], [k]. [r] is voiced alveolar glide, [æ] is low front short, [ŋ] is voiced
velar nasal, and the last phoneme is [k] is voiceless velar stop. Rank is slang word for bank, same as rank, bank also has one onset [b], one nucleus [æ], and
two codas [ŋ], [k]. The difference between rank and bank is only on their onset.
The next word is Mae West, shortened West, this word has one onset [w], one nucleus [e], and two codas [s], [t]. West is the slang word of chest, that
have the same syllable structure, consists of one onset[ ʧ ], one nucleus [e], and
two codas [s], [t]. The only difference is only on their onset, [w] is voiced velar glide and [
ʧ ] is voiceless palatal affricate and the same phonemes are [e] is mid front short, [s] is voiceless alveolar fricative, and the last is [t],voiceless alveolar
stop.
Figure 3.
h ʊ d Hood
Onset Rhyme
h ʊ d
Robin Hood is the slang word for good, that have one onset, one
nucleus, and one coda. Like others, these words only have diffence on their onzet [h], voiceless glottal glide, [g] is voiced velar stop. The same phonemes are
[ ʊ ] and [d], [ʊ ] is high back short and [d] is voiced alveolar stop.
Another phrase is Uncle ned,shorthened ned, is cockney rhyming slang of bed. Ned itself has n in the onzet, e in the nucleus, and d in the coda. Bed
has b in the onset, e in the nucleus, and d in the coda. As we can see tha the two words have the same figure but differ in their onset. The feature of n is
voiced alveolar nasal and the feature of b is voiced bilabial stop. Another word which also has the diifference syllable is trouble and
strife , a cockney rhyming slang of wife.
Figure 6.
stra
I
f Strife
Onset Rhyme
str Nucleus Coda
a
I
f
Figure 7.
wa
I
f Wife
Onset Rhyme
w Nucleus Coda
a
I
f
We can see on the figure 6 and figure 7, they are have the same syllable, but the difference is only in their onset. stra
I
f has three onset str, two nuclei a,
I
, and one coda f. str is a consonant cluster CCC used as onset in the word strife. The large onset cluster like this is not difficult to describe. The first
consonant must always be s and usually followed by one of one of the voiceless stopsp, t, k and a liquid or glide l, r, w. On the other hand, wa
I
f has only one onset w, two nuclei a,
I
, and one coda f. Therefore, the difference is only in their onset s voiceless alveolar glideand w voiced velar glide.
As the writer said in the first chapter, a rhyming slang is not always contains of two words but also a small phrase. The last word will also rhyme
with the target word, but in the conversation usually the first word will be used.E.g. Bladder of fat means hat
, “Take your bladder”. Both fat and hat have one syllable with three phonemes, fat fæt and hat hæt. The only difference
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