use of 'cockney'

todosmentira   Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:56 pm GMT
I have noticed a lot of people using the term 'a cockney accent' - as far as I'm aware Cockney means a dialect of rhyming slang - not an accent.

I'm from London born and bred (about 5 miles from the bells of bow - just outside the 'cockney' zone) and I would say I have a London accent - I don't know what a cockney accent means.

Although cockneys are said to be people born in the East End within earshot of the bells of bow - I would say that most people from that area have a pretty much identical accent to mine. I don't know much cockney rhyming slang, in fact the only Londoner I know who has a reasonable command of rhyming slang was born in Ireland!

Please be aware that the use of the word Cockney for London(er) is misleading and inaccurate. If you are specifying a 'cockney' accent as opposed to a London accent - can you tell me the phonological differences?
Rick Johnson   Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:19 pm GMT
As far as I'm aware the term Cockney dates back to (at least) the early 17th Century. The word appears in Blount's dictionary 1661.

http://www.bllearning.co.uk/live-extracts/287241/

Whatever linguistic differences there may have been 400 years ago are likely to have been diluted over time, but I think most people would consider anyone with an East End accent to be a "Cockney"!