c.
H-dropping house = „ouse
d.
alterations for example, replacing eɪ with [æɪ ~aɪ ], as in [fæɪ s] „face‟ or
[ta ɪ k] „take‟.
There also common patterns that are usually used by people when they use cockney rhyming slang in the conversation.rhyming slang terms can be
summarized as follows:
a. WORD and WORD
i. Noun and Noun :
Common nouns
pleasure and pain means rain,
e.g.
You dont have to take an umbrella. There wont be any pleasure today.
north and south means mouth,
e.g.
He gave me a punch right up the north and south.
Proper nouns:
Cain and Abel means table, e.g. Sit yourself at the cain.
Jack and Jill “hill,” e.g. Their cat is up the jack.
Adam and Eve
“believe,” e.g. I cant Adam and Eve it.
Verb and Verb:
read and write means fight, e.g. Hed rather read than walk away.
shake and shiver
means river, e.g. He jumped right into the shake.
ii. Pronoun and Pronoun :
me and you means menu
iii.
Adjective and Adjective: sorry and sad means bad, e.g. That dinner was a
bit sorry. iv.
Numeral and Numeral:
one and two means loo-toilet
b. NOUN PHRASE consisting in DETERMINER + HEAD:
M other‟s ruin means gin, e.g. Mothers ruin and tonic, please.
B utcher‟s hook means look, e.g. Take a butchers at this.
Tea leaf means thief
, e.g. He‟s a tea leaf.
The use of proper nouns place names and proper names is specific to today‟s slang. In most rhyming slang terms, there is no obvious connection
between the phrase and the word replaced: Hampstead Heeth “teeth”; Scotch
pegs “legs”; Irish jig “wig”; Conan Doyle “boil”; Mickey Mouse “house”; Auntie
Ella “umbrella”; Mutt and Jeff “deaf” Neagu 2001:35.
The most point of characteristics of cockney rhyming slang that the writer can find within the analysis is the tendency of referring by rhyming. Rhyme of
the last syllable of the target word determines one of the slang word, e.g. Wife [wa
I
f] become trouble and strife [stra
I
f], hair [he ǝ r] become barnet fair [feǝ r].
Sometimes the slang itself has nothing to do with the meaning of target word. As a vernacular language, a language which is used by a group of people in a certain
area, cockney rhyming slang was started by thieves and criminals to communicate in public without being understood by outsiders as a secret
language. The way it works is you must take a pair of related words where the
second word rhymes with the word you are going to say, then use the first word of the related pair to indicate the word you originally intended to say,
e.g. She‟s got a beautiful boat., instead of the
“Boat race”, – meaning “She‟s got a
beautiful face.” This feature, called abbreviation, makes a sentence in which it is employed much harder to understand. But there is always an exception that
proves the rule. There are some phrases in Cockney slang which are not abbreviated for example the Cockney expression Adam and Eve believe. In this
case the full rhyming phrase is used in place of the word, e.g. Would you Adam and Eve it?
. Sometimes there may be two or more ways to indicate the very same
thing or concept, e.g. “tea” can be referred to as Rosy Lee or Me and You in
Cockney rhyming slang. On the other hand, there may be one expression indicating more ideas, according to the context, e.g.
“Jack and Jill” can mean till cash, bill,
and hill. Some rhymes have been in use for years and are very well recognized, if
not used, among speakers of other accents. For example the slang expression bacon and eggs
“legs” as used in the sentence She has long bacons means “she has
long legs,” the slang expression butcher‟s hook “look” as used in the sentence Please, take a butcher
‟s at this means “Please, take a look at this.”
B. The Background of the Expressions of Cockney Rhyming Slang
Some people said that cockney rhyming slang was made to help thieves speak without being understood by others after a crackdown on crime in the heart
of London. Others said that the slang was created by market traders so they could discuss problems among themselves while securing a good deal from their
