Cockney influences found in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, says expert
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Linguistics professor says dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects of it have also travelled farther afield. The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.
No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex. But its influences can be found across the UK, particularly the south-east, more surprisingly in Glasgow, and even reaching Australia and New Zealand.
Young people in London today increasingly speak multicultural London English, a different dialect including elements of cockney as well as other languages and English dialects, which is also now spreading to other UK urban centres. But cockney has not disappeared. With some minor modifications it has been transplanted to Essex by those who left the east end’s poverty and overcrowding over the 20th century, according to Dr Amanda Cole, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Essex, and the author of numerous papers on dialects and accents among young Londoners. She was among the first generation of people born in Essex to east London-born parents.
“What we find is cockney has been really influential, particularly in Essex, and across the south-east and the country. And a lot of people’s accents have been changing to become more cockney-like. Not exactly cockney, more estuary English,” she said.
