LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.16 (03] [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 16 August 2006 * Volume 03
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.16 (02) [E]

>From: 'Global Moose Translations' [globalmoose at t-online.de]
>Subject: LL-L 'Rhyming slang' 2006.08.16 (01) [E]
>
>So I cannot really appreciate this because I am simply too young. I love
>that explanation!
>
>Seriously, I love puns and wordplay, cryptic clues, clever riddles and word
>puzzles more than anything else, but this rhyming slang thing does
>absolutely nothing for me. It appears to be at kindergarten level (let's use
>some nonsense words so others won't know what we're talking about, hee hee)
>compared to all those other glorious possibilities the English language has
>to offer.
>
>Probably an acquired taste, like root beer and wintergreen...

I think some of the remarks made so far have perhaps been a bit misleading.

While it can be funny (to outsiders) to hear the "wrong" word used or to
hear speech which is all English words but makes no sense (to
outsiders), Cockney Rhyming Slang is:

1. the first language of thousands of Londoners;
2. completely incomprehensible to most non-Londoners.

I'm not sure how true this is now, but it was certainly true in the
past. For example, my father told me that when he was in the merchant
navy, Londoners on the boats spoke Cockney Rhyming Slang to each other
without giving it any thought, but it was completely incomprehensible to
him - or rather, he understood every word but too many of them meant
something completely different and irrelevant to him!

It seems that it was originally intended as a secret language, but
spread out into the general populace. One of the big problems with
easily-learned secret languages such as Pig Latin or Double Dutch is
that you only need to know a few simple rules to crack the whole
language. Or of course you could have a complicated secret language, but
then it's difficult to learn and use. Rhyming slang manages a good
compromise since each item has to be learned separately because it's not
really possible to guess, but each has a built-in mnemonic to help you
to remember it until such a time as it becomes second nature.

For example, if you hear someone saying "They were talking pony down the
nuclear", you can't really guess that "pony" means "crap" and "nuclear"
means "pub". If these substituted words were chosen randomly it would
quickly get confusing and there would be no general agreement on their
meanings. But if you're learning the slang people will explain that
"pony" is "pony and trap" and "nuclear" is "nuclear sub", so you can
make connections which help you along until you start using them without
thinking.

It also helps to establish general agreement on the formation of new
"secret" vocabulary. If the mnemonic makes some sense and is reasonably
appealing, then the new word becomes generally accepted.

But remember that this is, or has been, the _first_ language of
thousands of people, and to them there's no word play or humour in it,
although they do tend to pick up on what's "behind" their vocabulary
from general conversation.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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