Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1910 — WHAT IS COCKNEYISM? [ARTICLE]

WHAT IS COCKNEYISM?

History from a Mythological Egg to a London Dialect* “Cockney” hasc come to carry with It a suggestion of incorrect speaking. As originally applied to the townsman, it simply Implied a lack of familiarity with the hardy sports of the countryman. A cockney was a small, nqjsshapen egg, which common ignorance supposed to be laid by the cock, the London Chronicle says. Hence the meaning became that of a milksop, from which It passed to the townsman. The cockney, at any rate, can feel proud that he gave the name to a school of literature, for though the term ''Cockney school” was at first derisive, Leigh Hunt and Hazlitt and Lamb (who found the best garden at Islington) carried on the great tradition from Johnson to Dickens —and further. “Cockneyism has do redeeming features and needs only to be heard to be condemned.” “That is a sentence from the report of a commission that' has been listening to the pronunciation of London school children. “Vowel sounds are ill-molded,” and you cannot step outside your door without hearing the five vowels merged into two. And yet the ear is ednstant to the sound of beautiful speech. The people who would “die.” rather than say “day” will succumb to the person who speaks nicely. There are two talks in London, and that cockney disregard of vowels, consonants and thei people- upstairs is rather remarkable. The servant who has been trained in the proper school will talk for a quarter of an hour In the softest voice and the proper intonations. He. can do it. But it Is a concession. Then comes the moment when he lets himself go. And if by accident you overhear it, you find the other London talk and voice: It is a matter of pride—the use of “You was” and so forth. There is probably not a butler in London who would not sacrifice the popularity of saying “You-were." The bad voice and the defaulting grammar are class prvileges. And stuck to.