One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post on Estuary English was mockney (sometimes written with a capital M), which is similar. The word itself is a pun on mock and Cockney and refers to a form of English, or an accent, which is put on by someone who really has a much 'posher' or more middle-class accent. People adopt mockney in order to appear matey and appeal to the wider public, who generally have a negative view of the cut-glass vowel sounds of the Home Counties.
The word mockney can describe the speaker as well as the accent. A mockney, therefore, is someone who exaggerates features of Cockney - glottal stop, saying f instead of th (I fink), h-dropping at the beginning of words, vowel lowering (saying sparra instead of sparrow) and tags at the end of sentences (know wha' I mean?). The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is a mockney. He grew up in a middle-class Essex household, but affects a working-class mockney accent. Another mockney is the film director Guy Ritchie, who makes films about London criminals, but is himself from a very upper-class background (his mother has the title Lady Leighton).
Mockney has entered the Oxford English Dictionary this month (March 2009).
ER sorry he's not a Mockney, he grew up in a small essex village (where I did) where most people speak like that and he went to the local state school, his accent isn't Mockney it's Essex!
Posted by: Jaybe | June 15, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Thank you for clarifying, and for reading the blog, Jaybe.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | June 16, 2010 at 09:45 PM
Jamie Oliver most certinaly IS a mockney, I'm from Canvey in Essex and I know a 'put on' working class Essex accent when I hear one. Jamie comes from a rather well to do village in an area that is so far northern Essex that it's actually closer to Cambridge than Southend or any of the other estuary towns. Ever heard his sister speak? She's as posh as they come. I will also note that he went to a Grammar school so recieved a much better level of education than your average state school. Goood blog by the way! :-)
Posted by: Mark | November 25, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Thanks for that information, Mark, and for your kind words. It's useful to have information from Essex people themselves.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | November 25, 2011 at 12:58 PM