London slang

London slang is a mixture of words and phrases from around the globe. It reflects the diverse ethnic and cultural makeup of the city's population. Because London occupies such a dominant economic position in the United Kingdom, slang originally unique to the city has spread across the UK. Conversely, slang from outside London has migrated in along with people seeking work in the capital. Cockney rhyming slang is probably the best known form of London slang.

Origins

Slang can infiltrate most any element of daily life. Take, for example, money. Much of the London slang about money is believed to have been imported from India by returning servicemen during the nineteenth century. The terms monkey, meaning £500, and pony, meaning £25, are believed to have come from old Indian rupee banknotes, which used to feature images of those animals. Another money slang word, nicker, which means £1, is thought to be connected to the American nickel. Wonga, which describes an unspecified amount of money, may come from the Romany word for coal, wanga.^[1]

Modern influences

In 2005, Professor Sue Fox from Queen Mary, University of London concluded that Cockney rhyming slang was dying out because children in London are being overwhelmed by words and phrases from outside cultures.^[2] Teenagers especially are incorporating into their vocabularies new words borrowed from outside the UK. This new slang is also influenced by new technologies, especially mobile phone SMS (short message service) or text messages. While "dat" and "dere" may be of Afro-Caribbean origin along with many other terms, their use in text messages as easier-to-key options to "that" and "there/their" cement them as slang in common usage. It is also factual that there are various forms of "London Slang". Slangs spoken in Black areas such as Brixton, Lewisham, Peckham, Harlesden, Stonebridge, Hackney, Tottenham, Ilford etc. incorporate many other terms which other areas do not use or often catch onto much later. For example terms such as: "Cah" = Because - e.g. "Cah di man dem wanna fly up North today." = "Because all of us want to go to North London tonight." "Manna" = Manna straight rudebwoy you know star = "I'm a rudeboy."

The large number of immigrant communities and relatively high level of ethnic integration mean that various pronunciations, words and phrases have been fused from a variety of sources to create modern London slang. The emerging dialect draws influences from Jamaican English and other Caribbean speech.^[3] This form of slang was born and is mainly spoken in Inner London^[3][4] and has been popularised by UK Rap music. Although the slang has been highly influenced by black immigrant communities, a large number of teenagers of all ethnicities in London have adopted it.^[5] Popular slang words include sick ("good"), bare ("very", "a lot of"), alie ("indeed", or to encourage agreement), skeen or seen ("I concur"), long ("boring", "repetitive"), wallad ("fool"), peak ("very bad"), sket (short for the Afro-Caribbean phrase Skettle, meaning a loose woman), wah gwarn ("what is happening", "hello"), wavey ("cool"), badman ("thug"), jezzy ("loose woman" (from Jezebel)), ting ("thing", or, when pluralised, to refer to the current situation), bossman (patriarchal figure), safe ("trustworthy", "good", or to show agreement), zoot ("marijuana/tobacco cigarette"), peng ("attractive" i.e. girl), clapped (ugly) leng ("weapon"), piff ("above average", derived from a strain of marijuana), nang (something desirable), dutty ("dirty"), Happz ("happy"), allow it ("leave it be"), two twos nah ("obviously"), chirpse ("flirting"), dun kno ("actually"), yard ("house"), wasteman/sideman ("idiot"), motive ("party, event") .

Other examples, include calling the police 'feds'; this probably comes from the shortened term used for federal agents (FBI) in the USA. Also, shortening the names of places, so for instance the West End becomes 'West' or Kentish Town becomes 'Kentish', is popular in everyday street English. An example in the form of a sentence would be that the phrase, "Let's go to the West End tonight, you guys, and let us steal some stuff." becomes, "You man, come we go West tonight and rip bare shit."

See also

• Multicultural London English
• Slang terms for British banknotes and coins

References

External links

• The London Slang Dictionary Project - A dictionary written by east and west London teenagers. Includes many terms that cannot be substantiated.
• The London Text and MSN Dictionary- A dictionary for mobile phone text messages and instant messaging written by west London teenagers.