Aneta poleca ciekawy konkurs
Warto wziąć udział
1. Read the text and follow the instructions underneath.
According to a popular saying a true Londoner is someone who was born within the sound of
Bow Bells, which is in fact in the neighbourhood of St.Mary-le-Bow Church in the East End of
London. The local people from this area are popularly called cockneys. They are usually of working
class origin. They aren't very rich but they are extremely cheerful. A very good example of their
sense of humour is the language they speak. Just like its users, it's also called cockney.
Although Londoners speak with a distinct local accent, not all of them speak cockney. To cut a
long story short, cockney is a kind of rhyming slang in which a word is replaced by a phrase that
rhymes with it, which means it sounds the same. For example, what an average Englishman would
call stairs, a cockney would replace by apples and pears. Funny, isn't it?
Sometimes a part of an expression is dropped. It may make it a bit difficult to understand what
the whole phrase means. A cockney may say, for instance, take a butcher's, which in standard
English stands for take a look. The original cockney expression was take a butcher's hook which
rhymed with look. Easy, isn't it?
The story has it that originally, that is in the late 18th century, cockney was used as a private language
of thieves and criminals. Now the cockney rhyming slang isn't so popular as it was before,
but you can still hear it as you stroll down the streets of East London.
TASK A:
After reading the text answer the questions.
1) Whom can we call a true Londoner?
2) Where exactly is St.Mary-le-Bow Church situated?
3) What kind of people are cockneys?
4) What kind of slang do they use?
5) Why is it sometimes difficult to understand cockney expressions?
6) Who was cockney originally used by?
TASK B:
Now try to match cockney expressions with their standard English counterparts. If a word is given in a bracket
(...), it is dropped in practice.
Cockney rhyming slang Standard English
1) Butcher's (Hook) A) Wife
2) Trouble and Strife B) Look
3) Loaf (of Bread) C) Corner
4) Lion's Lair D) Head
5) Johnie Horner E) Chair
6) Pig's (Ear) F) Pub
7) Rub-a-Dub-Dub G) Go
8) Scapa (Flow) H) Cash
9) Rabbit and Pork I) Beer
10) Sausage and Mash J) Talk