LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.16 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 16 August 2006 * Volume 01
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From: 'Hugo Zweep' [Zweep at bigpond.com]
Subject: LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.15 (06) [E]

Gabriele
Maybe not funny and rhyming slang doesn't set out to be - although it
sometimes can be. It is more a way of including the initiated in the "in"
group.

For my example: think early 1950s; Australia is still in the grip of its
White Australia policy, keeping out the Asian hordes, and here is a surf
club, then a bastion of nationalistic misogynist mateship welcoming ....
well it seemed funny to me ... sigh.

Hugo Zweep

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From: Heather Rendall [HeatherRendall at compuserve.com]
Subject: LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.15 (06) [E]

Message text written by INTERNET:lowlands-l at LOWLANDS-L.NET
>There are other rhyming slang traditions besides the Cockney <

London / Cockneys also tried Backslang for a short time in the 19th century
( I think) but it never caught on generally as much Rhyming Slang.

There are loads of English speakers that think 'scarper' is a real verb
meaning 'to go/run off' but it is in fact Rhyming Slang Scarpa Flow =
go
My father always called his hat his 'titfer' ( tit for tat = hat) so much
so that I thought it was a real name like trilby or bowler.
English is littered with mostly unrecognised adopted Rhyming Slang words -
but the only Backslang I know of is 'yob'

................ unless someone out there knows of more!

Heather

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Rhyming slang 

Hugo,

You wrote (above):

> For my example: think early 1950s; Australia is still in the grip of its
> White Australia policy, keeping out the Asian hordes, and here is a surf
> club, then a bastion of nationalistic misogynist mateship welcoming ....
> well it seemed funny to me ... sigh.

Don't sigh, mate!  At least *I* agree that it's bloody hilarious.  This is why I
said it's a case of "You had to be there," which includes "You have do understand
the background and the circumstances" to appreciate the irony.  This goes to show
again that humor is culture- and age-dependent.

And, Heather, you wrote (also above):

> English is littered with mostly unrecognised adopted Rhyming Slang words

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if you were right.  I fact, I've been long
suspecting the same.

Take the idiomatic expression "to have a ball" that I mentioned:

> E.g., "Didya see me trouble and tins havin' a ball?"
> tin < tin lid < kid = child
> ball < ball of chalk < walk 

Might this be the origin of "to have a ball" in the sense of "to have (a lot of)
fun," "to have the time of one's life"?

We're talking lower working class origins in a once strongly classist society
here (and in Australia a division between [former] convicts and British colonial
power).  Working-class people rarely got an hour off, leave alone a day.  Cooks,
maids and errand boys often "dawdled" (went for walks and chatted with neighbors
and friends) on their way to or from shopping, so they were having "fun" during
official working hours.  Hence, the origin of "to have a ball" may not have
anything to do with a dance party after all.  (I'm merely going out on a limb
here.)  I even wonder if rhyming slang is responsible for "weird" idiomatic
expressions like "and Bob's your uncle" (meaning something like "and it's
done/accomplished," "and it's a wrap," or current American "and you're good to go").

I think the original and perhaps to a degree remaining social significance of
rhyming slang is that it is insider code serving as a type of bond between
same-class or same-group speakers, and that it allows one to mention things
without outsiders being the wiser, because those things are not permitted (e.g.,
"dawdling," "naughty words and good old Cockney pickpocket communication).    For
instance, saying "tart" instead of "fart" would be way too obvious and indeed not
terribly funny; by extending "tart" to "raspberry tart" and then taking away the
"tart" part you completely obscure the connection to an outsider's understanding,
and I find that pretty clever.

No sighs from me on this score.

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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