COCKNEY RULES Flashcards
sound placement/focus
Start at back of mouth going to where the soft and hard palate meet
Intonation pattern/melody/stress/tone (3)
up and down from syllable to syllable/word, common to connect words due to glottal stops and strength of consonants. Sometimes seen as an accent of “fits and starts.”
broad pitch variation
a certain laxness with consonant formation
despite glottal stop, a legato, easy-going accent (not the staccato that beginners can produce)
helpful hints (3)
- swing a bent arm from left to right
- pretend to chew gum (gets mouth to open up, making it less likely to turn every vowel into a schwa)
- pretend your character is really stupid (helps you find a more open resonant space and a lower pitch). Once the tension is released and the pitch dropped, assumptions regarding intelligence can be readjusted.
rhythm
moderately paced
consonants (6)
r t h l θ & ð ŋ
vowels and diphthongs (13)
- iː to [əiː or ʌiː]
- eɪ to aɪ
- æ to æ
- æ to ɑː
- aɪ: [a̹ɪ or ɒɪ] (like FACE set in this dialect), but with lip-rounding instead of change in tongue position
- aʊ to [æːː or æə or æʊ]
- ɑː toɒ
- ɑː to ɔː
- oʊ to [(ãə̃ = toward ã towards uː stopping at ə̃ ) or ʌʊ]
- uː to [əu̜ː or ʌuː]
- ə to ʌ
- in a carriage.
- (ɝː + syllable) to (ʌ + r + syllable)
- /r/ initiates next syllable
- Example sentence: The worried burro hurried to the borough of Durham for courage.
- Please not that place names ending in -borough may be pronounced with a single syllable
Special Rules (4)
1. -ɛri to -rɪ Newbury's satisfactory secretary 2. spelled -ile pronounced [aɪl] Fragile, juvenile mobile 3. one-off differences of pronunciation zebra, process, lever 4. one-off differences of stress in polysyllabic words cigar-ETTE, maga-ZINE, tele-VIS-ion
æ (2)
æ to æ
æ to ɑː
ɑː (2)
ɑː to ɒ, ɑː to ɔː
ə
sometimes ʌ
i
iː to [əiː or ʌi]
u:
[əu̜ː or ʌuː]
aʊ
[æːː or æə or æʊ]
eɪ
aɪ
oʊ
[(ãə̃ = toward ã towards uː stopping at ə̃ ) or ʌʊ]
aɪ
[a̹ɪ or ɒɪ] (like FACE set in this dialect), but with lip-rounding instead of change in tongue position
r (included)
- at the beginning of a word
- after a consonant sound
- between two vowel sounds in a single word…where the r is in the spelling of the word
- between two vowel sounds split between two words…where the r is in the spelling of the word (linking R)
- between a word ending in the “ah” sound and followed by a word starting with a vowel sound (intrusive R)
t
[t] becomes [ʔ]
- between vowel sounds
- post-vocalically
- at the middle or end of a word
- unless it begins a stressed syllable
- or follows a consonant sound
l (consonant)
w or [ʊ̹] (a lip-rounded, mid close, back vowel)
- at the end of a syllable or a word “hell”
- if followed by a consonant sound “help”
HOWEVER…
- if it is immediately followed by a vowel sound, the true /l/ is formed (a linking /l/) “hella”
θ (non-voiced)
becomes f everywhere
ŋ (unstressed in polysyllabic words)
becomes [n (ɪn)] or [ŋk] or [g]
h
THE H IS NEVER SOUNDED AS A PHONETIC [H]
- if /h/ is preceded by silence, use the [ʔ] “Hello!”
- if /h/ is not preceded by silence, do not use the [ʔ]…rather elide/drop initial h (don’t glottalize) - your home, guess who, he’s Henry, behave, his house “Hello, Henry!”
- if /t/ ends one word and /h/ begins the next, then the final /t/ is glottalized, NOT the /h/. - White House, right home, meet Harry, got heavy “Hello, Fit Henry!”
- In phrases like “a hamster”, the indefinite article “a” is changed to “an” when the /h/ is dropped. - a horrible house, a heavy heart, a hillside, a hospital
ð (voiced)
- when starting a syllable, becomes a d
- when ending a syllable, becomes a v
r (not included)
- when it comes after a vowel sound and simply elongates the preceding vowel sound (car, cart)
- when it comes after a vowel sound and is replaced by a schwa (hair)
/p/ and /k/
- A subtle and difficult concept is the glottal reinforcement of [p] and [k]. Listen to how the glottal does not replace the consonant but “coexists” with it, reinforcing it and robbing it of its aspiration and its usual mode of release.
ŋ (single syllable words)
unaffected (king, rung, etc.)
ɝː in polysyllabic situations
ɝː to (ʌ + r) in polysyllabic situations
- /r/ initiates next syllable
- Example sentence: The worried burro hurried to the borough of Durham for courage.
- Please not that place names ending in -borough may be pronounced with a single syllable
(ɛ + r) in polysyllabic situations
(ɛ + r) to (æ + r) in polysyllabic situations
- /r/ initiates next syllable
- Example sentence: Don’t marry arrogant Harry in a carriage.
