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‖Done!‖ said Mr. Jorrocks, ―a guinea one – and we‘ll ax my friend here. – Now, what‘s
that?‖ [p.22]
―Catch my ‗oss, boouy!‖ [p. 33]
―I‘m a werry old member of the ‗unt, and when I was a werry poor man (hiccup) I
always did my best to support them (hiccup), and now that I‘m a werry rich man
(cheers) I shan‘t do no otherwise. About subscribing to the staggers, I doesn‘t
recollect saying nothing whatsomever about it (hiccup), but as I‘m werry friendly to
sporting in all its ramifications (hiccup), I‘ll be werry happy to give ten pounds to your
‗ounds.‖ [drunk, p. 70]
―who‘d have thought of seeing you in the city, this is something unkimmon!‖ [p.73]
―When we got near the Helephant and Castle, Timothy Odgkinson, of Brixton Hill, a
low, underselling grocer, got his measly errand cart, with his name and address in
great staring white letters, just in advance of the leaders, and kept dodging across the
road to get the sound ground, for the whole line was werry ―wooley‖ as you calls it.‖
[Jorrocks writing a letter, p. 207]
5b.1 Orthography
Transposition v and w, vot, werry,
Elision (with apostrophe) „orse, „ounds, reg‟lar, „oss [but note also hack, home]
Respelling Binjamin, ax, load (lad), boouy, unkimmon
Hypercorrection: Helephant and Castle
5b.2 Grammar
Non standard concord what they calls, I doesn‟t
Double negative I doesn‟t recollect saying nothing, I shan‟t do no otherwise
5b.3 Vocabulary
tit, clipper, displeasancy [a neologism? p. 93], gammonacious [p. 105]
5c. Dialect area(s) represented
Cockney. Social and regional dialect (but note: is it ‗Cockney‘ as we think of it today?)
5d. Density of dialect representation
Moderately marked
5e. Location of dialect
Dialect entirely in dialogue
5f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
Male, prosperous grocer aspiring to life of landed gentry
5g. Consistency of representation
Not always a consistent representation, but no obviously intentional code-switching
apart from speech given when drunk, where his cockney becomes stronger [p. 70]
5. Variety #2: slangy cockney, spoken by peripheral characters including
newspaper boys
5a. Sample of dialect
"A hunter! a hunter! crikey, a hunter! My eyes! there‘s a gamecock for you! Vot a
beauty! Vere do you turn out to-day? Vere‘s the stag? Don‘t tumble off, old boy! ‗Ave
you got ever a rope in your pocket? Take Bell‘s Life in London, vot contains all the
sporting news of the country! Vot a vip the gemman‘s got! Vot a precious
basternadering he could give us – my eyes, vot a swell! vot a shocking bad hat! – vot
shocking bad breeches!‖ [newspaper boys, p. 20]
‖I say, Tom, twig this ‗ere machine,‖ said one. ―Dash my buttons, I never seed such a
thing in all my life.‖ [toll boys, p. 61]
‖Carn‘t wait, ma‘am – time‘s hup‖ [coachman, p. 140]
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