Word: cockney
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Phonetician Henry Higgins undertakes to make a lady of Cockney Eliza Doolittle by teaching her to speak properly...
Current leaders in the competition are Gazio, Air-Pic, Opalook, I.C. and Kaladio. The top contender-Dekko-was borrowed from cockney slang. In the vernacular, dekko† means look (e.g., "Let's have a dekko at it") True to the leisurely traditions of many British contests, the Daily Express isn't sure just when it will announce the winner-maybe this week; maybe later...
...Dekka (or dik) stems from both the Hindustani and Romany (gypsy) languages. Common in the British Army in India since 1890, dikka was brought back to Britain by returning soldiers, gradually passed into cockney speech...
...London music hall is no accident. She calls herself a Cockney, though she was actually born in the London suburb of Lewisham, beyond the sound of Bow Bells. Her parents, she remembers, were "a bit arty-went in for pacifism, vegetarianism, Socialism and all that." At ten, she met Raymond Duncan, who sent her to study dancing with his sister Isadora. At 16, Elsa organized a London theater company, which put on one-act plays by Chekhov and Pirandello...
...English proved not quite so drained of feeling as Loretta thought. When the A.P. story appeared in London papers, Londoners snorted or guffawed. Said a bus conductor: "She must be loopy." "Absurd," snapped Cockney Sally, who' serves afternoon tea in a London office...