Early Cockney vees for double-yous

[Paul Johnston]

Some of these, I suspect, are just spelling substitutions, although there's evidence of /w/ for /v/ (usually that direction) in SED in some Kent and Sussex localities.  I doubt if "vhom" means a /v/ was pronounced this late on, as the /w/ was long gone in London.

Paul Johnston
On Jan 1, 2014, at 5:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Early Cockney vees for double-yous
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>
> Dickens, of course, made this trait familiar in _The Pickwick Papers_.
>
> Is this the earliest occurrence? Note that in this burlesque, the sounds
> consistently replace each other:
>
> ca1785-90 Robert Pickersgill, ed  _Mirth's magazine: or, Momus's Fund. A
> collection of humourous songs, &c. from the most celebrated authors_
> (London: ptd. for the compiler, n.d.) 10-11 [ECCO]:
>
> Fleet Market ...clee-wers...Italian airs and quawers... vile I sing the
> fair vith vhom you'd vish to dally....vithal ...She vears plain
> stuffs...She's...deserwing...Vot vould you give for such a vife.
>
>
> As a point of interest, p. 10 also has "olesome" for "wholesome."
>
> The song does not appear (to me, anyway)  to burlesque some foreign accent.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> --
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