LONDON SPEECH HABITS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 2

LONDON SPEECH HABITS

Silent Initial Letter “H” Less Evident

SCHOOL INSPECTORS’ REPORT

(From the London Correspondent of “The Press”) LONDON. June 10.

"’Appy ’Ampstead” of Cockney fame and song has become “Happy Hampstead” as the mark of the true Cockney—the silent initial letter “h” —is gradually being lost.

London County Council’s school -inspectors reported this week that there has been a general improvement in the speech of London children in the last few decades. Although “bilingualism”—one mode of speaking for home and another for school—is still strong, the more extreme forms of Cockney speech are rarely heard nowadays.

The London dialect is still a force in speech, however. Cockney children still distort their diphthongs so that “rail’’ and “rate” become “rile and “rite.” and “ver” is the common form of “the.” The letter "f” is also a common substitution for “th." and “fink” and “fing” are commonly heard for “think” and “thing.” say the inspectors.

But the most typical of the slovenly omissions in the London dialect is what the inspectors describe as “the intermission of the glottal stop for a consonantal sound." This means that instead of saying “water” and butter." the true Cockney still adheres to his traditional “wa’er" and “bu’er.”

Slovenly Speech in Streets Where children have fittls home life; where from quite an early, age they “run the streets,” the rough, spasmodic, clipped and slovenly speech is still fostered, report the inspectors. In overcrowded homes, everyone tends to shout or raise the pitch of his voice to command attention, and strident bickering is the normal speech in many London slums. Children are more likely to be told to “shut up” than listened to by their elders, and this perpetuates and strengthens the Cockney slang, say the experts.

Some of the more extreme effects of slang picked up at the cinema have proved transitory. “Okay” and Yeah” are seldom heard among London children now, although a few years ago their use was usual. The nasalised speech of Hollywood, affected by some children, has also died out.

A less snobbish attitude toward the London dialect is now evident, says the report. This may be because it is now realised that the Cockney pedigree is as sound as any of the dialects of the various shires, as Cockney has its roots in the early speech of Kent, Essex and the East Midlands.

Young Londoners, however, who cannot speak the local form of standard English—a hybrid between unslovenly Cockney and the 8.8.C.’s

“correctness”—are still at a social disadvantage and suffer setbacks when they seek employment outside the ranks of manual workers. By laying good foundations of-. speech in its schools, the L.C.C. hopes to prevent any frustration and social bitterness that may befall the young Cockney.