111 “baker,” which was formed by attaching the affix -er to the verb “to bake.”
However, it was seen that the formation of the word “cadger” was not preceded by the attachment of the affix -er to the verb “to cadge.” The word “cadger” in
fact appeared previously before the verb “to cadge” appeared. The same case also happened to the word “Yiddish,” which was
substituted by “tin lid” in Cockney. The word “Yiddish” in fact appeared abnormally since most of the time to form an adjective with the affix -ish, the
speakers of the language were required to attach the affix to a noun. However, the adjective “Yiddish” turned out to exist before the noun “Yid” existed. In other
words, it could be said that the occurrence of the word “Yiddish” did influence the occurrence of the word “Yid.”
o. Onomatopoeia in Cockney and Bahasa Binan
Akmajian, et al. 2001 describe onomatopoeia as a process of forming the words to describe the sound of the nature. Many times onomatopoeia words are
used to describe the sounds of animals and other nature sounds, such as winds and waters. Some English words that are used to describe the sounds of animals are
the words “meow,” which is used to describe the sound of kittens, “boom,” which is used to describe the sound of blast, and kukuruyuk, which is used to describe
the sound of cocks in Bahasa Indonesia. The case of onomatopoeia in Cockney and Bahasa Binan basically
followed the case of onomatopoeia in English and Bahasa Indonesia. In other words, it could be said that basically all onomatopoeia words in English also
existed in Cockney. The same phenomenon also happened in Bahasa Binan as
112 most of the time all onomatopoeia words in Bahasa Binan were taken from
Bahasa Indonesia. In fact, the writer did not find any case of onomatopoeia in the dictionary of Bahasa Binan. However, the writer found some words that could be
designated as the onomatopoeias in the chosen dictionary of Cockney. Some of the discovered onomatopoeia words in Cockney are described in Table 4.23.
Table 4.23: Onomatopoeia in Cockney
Word Onomatopoeic with
Meaning
clickety-click the fast and rhythmic click-clack;
the sound of a typewriter sixty six
“puff” and dart the sound of air
heart rub-a-dub-dub
drumming sound pub
rattle and clank the sound of group of objects
bank rattle and hiss
the sound of group of objects and the snake
piss
From Table 4.23, it was seen that the nature of onomatopoeia in Cockney was the same with the nature of onomatopoeia in English. This fact was seen in
the word “rub-a-dub-dub,” which was used to describe the “drumming sound” in English. However, it turned out that the word “rub-a-dub-dub” was used to depict
“a pub” in Cockney. The writer found that this phenomenon happened because the word “pub” possibly elicited the sense of “drumming sound,” which was
described by the onomatopoeia “rub-a-dub-dub.” Therefore, it could be said that sometimes the speakers of Cockney used onomatopoeia words to describe places
that had an association with sounds as it was seen in the word “a pub,” which was replaced by the onomatopoeia “rub-a-dub-dub” in Cockney.
113 Another fact was seen in the word “rattle and clank,” which meant “bank”
in Cockney. Actually, the word “rattle and clank” described the sound of “group of objects” that were moving to each other. In other words, it could be said that
basically there was no correlation between the word “bank” and “rattle and clank” as how it happened in the word “pub” and “rub-a-dub-dub.” The writer found that
the reason of the Cockney speakers to use the word “rattle and clank” to mean “bank” was because of the rhyming sounds between the word “clank” in the word
“rattle and clank” and the word “bank.” Therefore, it could be said that other than considering the association of the sound to the place, the speakers of Cockney
also considered the rhyming sounds of the words in Cockney and its meaning in English.
The same case also happened to the word “rattle and hiss,” “puff and dart,” and “clickety-click.” Although all the three words were used to describe the
sound of nature in English, it turned out that those onomatopoeia words were used to describe certain places or even verbs in Cockney so that the lay people would
not understand what actually the speakers of Cockney talked about. This case was seen in the word “rattle and hiss,” which was used to mean “piss” in English
simply because the word “hiss” rhymed with the word “piss.” Another case was seen in the word “dart” in “puff and dart,” which rhymed with the word “heart” in
English. The same thing also appeared in the word “clickety-click,” which was really popular in English to describe the sound of a typewriter that was being
used. However, it turned out that the speakers of Cockney used the word
114 “clickety-click” to mean “sixty six” because the word “six” sounded alike to the
final part of the word “clickety-click.” From the explanation above, it could be said that onomatopoeia words in
Cockney was not always used to describe the sound of nature. It was many times used as the words that replaced the intended words in English so that it would
burden the lay people to understand the conversation among the speakers of Cockney. The writer also found that besides the impression of words and
onomatopoeia words, such as “pub” and “rub-a-dub-dub,” the reasons to employ onomatopoeia words in Cockney was also because of the rhyming sounds
between the words in English and the onomatopoeia words, such as “clickety- click” and “six.”
3. Meaning Modification in Cockney and Bahasa Binan
