Geographic and Social Aspects of Cockney
The traditional London East End has
experienced rapid movement of population and social changes in most recent
decades. Cockney is mainly associated with the working class of the inner-most
suburbs of eastern London, which includes the modern borough of Tower Hamlet’s
and the southern part of the borough of Hackney.
Cockney accent has spread out from
the traditional Cockney area due to massive population shifting of many white
working class Anglos. The first reason to that spreading has to do with the
“slum-clearance” program, which was a part of the post-war construction after
World War 2. Due to lack of housing in the East End after the war, large parts
of its original inhabitants were moved out and decentralized to areas further
east, or the easternmost suburbs of London, like Barking and Havering, to
estates that were built for this purpose, or to the new-established towns such as Basildon
and Harlow in Essex, and MiltonKeynes in Buckinghamshire. The result of
this was that the population in the East End was decreasing to the point of
becoming a forth of what it was before the two World Wars.
The highlighted area is the traditional London East End |
Since 1981, the population has
steadily started to grow again, but now with significant social changes.
The second reason has to do with
the closing of the busy docks in Tower Hamlet’s in the 1970’s, which resulted
in unemployment amongst the dock workers, who had to seek work somewhere else.
Many of them moved to Tilburywhere the only remaining dock was located. In
1981, the government sought to remedy the declining situation of the dock
industry in London, and the Dockland Development Corporation was established.
The area began to florish again, and a new financial centre was established. As
a consequence, a lot of new housing was developed in the sarounding area. These
prestigious housing developments attracted a community that was more middle
class than the traditional working class with which the area was originally
associated.
The third reason for the social
changes in this area is the fact that London, and particularly the East End,
has been for a long time the point of arrival of many immigrants to Britain.
The increasing population in the East End since 1981 is by large due to
Bangladeshi immigration during this period. The Bangladeshi now make about one
third of the population in the traditional East End, and are a
substantial part of the new working class.
In view of all this, it is
reasonable to assume that there have been linguistic changes in this area as
well. The Cockney accent can no longer be restricted to the area with which it
was traditionally associated. However, by acknowledging that that the Cockney
accent is as much a class as a regional accent, it is also plausible to
consider it as the working class speech of London.
The traditional East End is one of
the most diverse in terms of ethnicity. More than half of inhabitants of Tower
Hamlet’s (one of the main Cockney buroughs and considered here as
representative of the London East End as a whole) belonged to another ethnicity
than white British. According to National Statistics Online, about 30% are
Bangladeshi origin. Tower Hamlet’s is also a region of many contrasts. On one
hand, there are very deprived area with high unemployment, criminal
levels and slice of population experiencing poverty level. On the other, some
of the areas experience high prosperity.
Since 1960, when Eva Sivertsen
published “Cockney Phonology”, there have not been
many studies on the language spoken in the traditional East-End. Her study is a
thorough descriptive phonological account on cockney. Further studies have
concentrated on the question of ethnicity as a motivator for language
change.
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