COCKNEY RULES

Question 1

sound placement/focus

Answer 1

Start at back of mouth going to where the soft and hard palate meet

Question 2

Intonation pattern/melody/stress/tone (3)

Answer 2

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)

Question 3

helpful hints (3)

Answer 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.

Question 4

rhythm

Answer 4

moderately paced

Question 5

consonants (6)

Answer 5

r
t
h
l
θ & ð
ŋ

Question 6

vowels and diphthongs (13)

Answer 6

1. iː to [əiː or ʌiː]
2. eɪ to aɪ
3. æ to æ
4. æ to ɑː
5. aɪ: [a̹ɪ or ɒɪ] (like FACE set in this dialect), but with lip-rounding instead of change in tongue position
6. aʊ to [æːː or æə or æʊ]
7. ɑː toɒ
8. ɑː to ɔː
9. oʊ to [(ãə̃ = toward ã towards uː stopping at ə̃ ) or ʌʊ]
10. uː to [əu̜ː or ʌuː]
11. ə to ʌ
12. in a carriage.
13. (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

Question 7

Special Rules (4)

Answer 7

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

Question 8

æ (2)

Answer 8

æ to æ

æ to ɑː

Question 9

ɑː (2)

Answer 9

ɑː to ɒ, ɑː to ɔː

Question 10

ə

Answer 10

sometimes ʌ

Question 11

i

Answer 11

iː to [əiː or ʌi]

Question 12

u:

Answer 12

[əu̜ː or ʌuː]

Question 13

aʊ

Answer 13

[æːː or æə or æʊ]

Question 14

eɪ

Answer 14

aɪ

Question 15

oʊ

Answer 15

[(ãə̃ = toward ã towards uː stopping at ə̃ ) or ʌʊ]

Question 16

aɪ

Answer 16

[a̹ɪ or ɒɪ] (like FACE set in this dialect), but with lip-rounding instead of change in tongue position

Question 17

r (included)

Answer 17

1. at the beginning of a word
2. after a consonant sound
3. between two vowel sounds in a single word…where the r is in the spelling of the word
4. between two vowel sounds split between two words…where the r is in the spelling of the word (linking R)
5. between a word ending in the “ah” sound and followed by a word starting with a vowel sound (intrusive R)

Question 18

t

Answer 18

[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

Question 19

l (consonant)

Answer 19

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”

Question 20

θ (non-voiced)

Answer 20

becomes f everywhere

Question 21

ŋ (unstressed in polysyllabic words)

Answer 21

becomes [n (ɪn)] or [ŋk] or [g]

Question 22

h

Answer 22

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

Question 23

ð (voiced)

Answer 23

• when starting a syllable, becomes a d

- when ending a syllable, becomes a v

Question 24

r (not included)

Answer 24

1. when it comes after a vowel sound and simply elongates the preceding vowel sound (car, cart)
2. when it comes after a vowel sound and is replaced by a schwa (hair)

Question 25

/p/ and /k/

Answer 25

• 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.

Question 26

ŋ (single syllable words)

Answer 26

unaffected (king, rung, etc.)

Question 27

ɝː in polysyllabic situations

Answer 27

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

Question 28

(ɛ + r) in polysyllabic situations

Answer 28

(ɛ + r) to (æ + r) in polysyllabic situations

• /r/ initiates next syllable
• Example sentence: Don’t marry arrogant Harry in a carriage.