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From: "Graham King" <>
Subject: RE: [EoLFHS] Cockney Jokes
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:12:51 -0000
In-Reply-To: <002301c3c478$e2e0aa80$a064a8c0@nildram.net>


A little Cockney bloke in the pub was enthusing about his recent holiday.
He's been on a cruise to the Caribbean,
"First we stops in Cuba, then Jamaica and then we puts into Haiti", he
reminisced.
"So what comes after Haiti then" asked a listener politely.
"Well s' h'eighty-one, init", said the Cockney.

And there are some famous old ones from Max Miller, which I'll send off-list
out of sensitivity to those who may not share his sense of humour!

Graham King




-----Original Message-----
From: George English [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 8:37 AM
To:
Subject: [EoLFHS] Cockney Jokes

Since we've got into Cockney, has anyone got any Cockney jokes? I've lived
in Scotland for many years and was struck by how similar the Glaswegian and
Cockney humour is (the accents are a little different!). My father used to
quote

"It wasn't the cough that carried him off;
It was the coffin they carried him off in."

There's an amusing book on Glaswegian called 'The Patter'; lo and behold, it
had the same quote in, saying it was Glaswegian. The older amongst us may
remember Stanley Baxter's Parliamo Glasgow.

I have a selfish reason for asking. I have to do a Toast to Scotland at a
Burns Supper and thought I'd use the Glasgow/Cockney link. As it's all male,
'blue' doesn't matter! A female put-down from The Patter is:

"I wouldn't go out with him if he farted 10 bob notes"!

Kind regards

George

----- Original Message -----
From: "Beverly Porter" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: [EoLFHS] Cockney pronunciation


> Graham,
>
> Thank you, and the others who dropped me a note, for your comments.
> Definitely different sounds than in Maryland or, I would imagine, the
> New York where they ended up in 1850. The dropping of the A in Amelia
> fits in with my locating of Amelia in the 1880 census; there she was
> listed as Melia Fearn. In 1870, however, she was Mary Fern, and possibly
> that was also the case in 1850 though that one still has to be verified.
> Thank you, too, Graham for a new possible FEARN variation. I'm having
> difficulty finding two of the other FEARNs in 1870. I'll give VEARN a
> try.
>
> Beverly
>
>
> Graham King wrote:
> >
> > Sorry Pauline, as a Cockney I don't agree! You're dead right about the
"th"
> > sound and I really like the examples. I'm of the opinion that if the
"f"
> > sound follows a terminal vowel, such as the "a" in Amelia, then the
> > following consonant would tend to get "swallowed" or de-emphasised. I'm
not
> > saying that the "f" sound wouldn't be there at all, simply that it would
> > become quite indistinct, so that an enumerator, working totally orally
might
> > not transcribe it correctly.
> >
> > However ... the debate is quite lively and hopefully it has given
Beverly
> > some food for thought! Long way from the way they talk in Maryland eh?
> >
> > A merry Chris'mas an' annappy New Year to awlEas' London listers.
> >
> > Graham King
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: James Haggerty [mailto:]
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 7:04 PM
> > To:
> > Subject: Re: [EoLFHS] Cockney pronunciation
> >
> > Sorry Graham, as a cockney I dont agree. Its our 'th' that isn't
distinct,
> > in fact we would replace it with 'f'
> > fanks - thanks, free - three].
> > I would pronounce the surname 'Fern'
> >
> > Pauline.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Graham King" <>
> > To: <>
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 12:27 AM
> > Subject: RE: [EoLFHS] Cockney pronunciation
> >
> > > The most likely pronunciation would drop the "a" at the beginning.
Yes so
> > > Milly is a good one, also Meela, Melia maybe even Molly. No real
variants
> > > on the surname as far as pronunciation goes, except that Cockneys do
odd
> > > things with consonants and so the "F" wouldn't be very distinct. The
name
> > > might have been enumerated or recorded as Vearn.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > Graham King
> > >
> > >
> > >
>

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