THE COCKNEY DIALECT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 9

THE COCKNEY DIALECT.

Lovers of London (says tho London "Tablet") will bo glad to lecm that tho caso for the despised Cocknej' dialect- lias boon very cl.early and forcibly .sot forth by Mackenzie Maeßrido in a, •little book entitled "London's Dialect sii Ancient of English Speech" fL'riory Press: .Hampstcad). This vigorous defenco • was provoked . b.y tho -language of, a reconi report in which tho .educational authorities encouraged tho London teachers in their work of destruction,' and drew an invidious distinction between tho-lauguago of London aud the old local dialocts spoken in .other parts of England. These, it •seems,.had some beauties of their own, and had an. historic interest as ancient forms of English. But nothing of the kind .could :bo said for mosto lengo mespresado. ' ' .

■■ Tho Writer of this vindication of the London vernacular .is able to slioiv, by convincing evidence, that the assertion of the so contemptuous critics is without inundation. For, in fact, tho history'of this despised dialect is as ancient and honourable as that of any other in-the ■laind, and-, those very supposetl errors in grajiimar or. prbmmciation, which aro so often 1 tho subject of ignorant ridicule, h.ivo far better authority than tho correct forms favoured ! by fashionable educationists." To take one or two obvious examples, "kep".is really'tho old <past tense, and "kept" is an innovation which . probably' owes its origin to a falso, analogy: and in like manner "thet" for "that" is the old spelling and pronunciation of tho Kentish dia-; lect in the .ninth century, while the London narrow sound of'.'o" finds support in'old spelling, and tho saulo may. be said of the peculiarity which give's most offence to our fastidious teachers and- critics, wo mean tho London pronunciation of "ai" in. words like "daily" and "bailiff.". Thus tho form "byliifo" is fouud in .the sixteenth century. ■ • . -

Tho spirited little pamphlet makes no claim to 'completeness.'' And 110 doubt mosf readers who havo studied -'English' historically will-bo able to supplement uho author's illustrations, and strengthen some of his arguments. And certainly tlioso who, have laboured in other , fields of philology will not bo surprised at tho suggestion ■ that tho English of the. uneducated Londoner is really more correct than that of tho so-called . cultured classes. For .has not the same thing, happened in other lands and. with-other languages? On this point we. are tempted to cite tho emphatic language of Raskin his "Grainmar of tho Icelandic or Old , Norso tongue," when' 110 is speaking of the nclp afforded to tho student b.y modern. Swedish and Danish. "The dialect of tho commcm people in all three realms is a still'more important help than that, of the higher classes,. because the personal genders are' moreV-accurately distinguished in it, and this-in such'strict ; accordance with the. Ice!., that, in Jpuncn at least, \vo?d in hundred can ho cxpected that iias changed its original gender iii tho speech of tho lower classes." In the samo way,tho learned Mcchitarist. .Dr. Deryischjan, remarks that t-So peculiar pronunciation ascribed to the Western Dialect 1 of modern Armenia, is really confined to speakers of the educated classes. The Armenian, ho adds; who has-not learnt his mother tongue in a school still keeps to the old authentic pronunciation of tho Eastern. Armenians. Most of the evidence adduced by Mr. Maeßrido is purely'. historical.' But, in regard to 0110 of his points a strong case might-bo made 011 the laws of! phonetics and/ tho analogy, of other languages. Londoners, are laughed at for saying dily for "daily." And if the critic wero asked to describe the: mistako, ho would probably say that, tho careless Cockney gave to"ai" tho sound of the vowel - '1. But it is really the other way round. For as a . matter of fact tho sound which English-speaking 'people generally give to that unfortunate vowel moro properly belongs to the combination''of "ai" or "ay." ' This point is well put by Forbes,'in his excellent Persian grammar, when 1 after : explaining tjiat father (tho vowel a) and yao inert (the consonant v) combine to form a diphthong like a'i in the German word Kaiser, ho goes 011 to add "this; sound is really that of our own i in wise, size, which wo aro pleased to call a vowel, but which, in -reality, is a-genuine diphthong." The analogy of the kindred German, to say nothing of such more remote relatives as Welsh, Persian, and Sanskrit, certainly suggest that ai,.ay, ought to be wunded as the Cockneys sound it, and that tho other .pronunciation is a token of phonetic decay.