Stacia Linz

SLM521

Dropin #5

British Rhyming Slang

This Web Dropin is designed to explore British Rhyming Slang and as an introductory activity for Anthony Burgess’s novel, A Clockwork Orange. It is geared toward AP English Grade 12

British Rhyming Slang is a particular form of slang.

Slang, as we’ve discussed, is informal language (words + expressions) within the standard system of a dialect or language.

British Rhyming slang (so named because it’s thought to have originated within the Cockney dialect)is very clever, lots of fun…and a little bit complicated to get the hang of.

Here is how the structure works:

In British Rhyming Slang, a pair of words (or phrase) replaces and represents a single word, and where the second in the pair of words rhymes with the word in question:

 So, “phone” is replaced with “dog and bone” : I am on the dog and bone-- [telephone].

What makes matters more complicated is that the second  word in the new pair is then frequently dropped altogether:  I am on the dog --[drop “and bone, just “dog”]

This means that without the rhyme to figure out the association to the original word [bone/phone], it becomes difficult to figure out the rhyming phrase, and thus word it stands for. Once you get the hang of it, it gets a lot faster!

Here are some classic and currently common examples:

Adam and Eve                   Believe

Apples and Pears             Stairs

Bees and Honey                               Money

Billy Lids                               Kids

Chevy Chase                      Face

China  Plate                        Mate (friend)

Trouble and Strife            Wife

 

Example: Potatoes in the mold = Cold

It is easier to figure this out from context, especially when the final rhyme of the substitution phrase is dropped, and it’s easier in face-to-face conversation, than in writing. Why do you think this is?

This exercise is meant to deepen your understanding of wordplay, of slang, and to keep your brain supple as we are reading Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, which is narrated in a unique form of slang partially created by the author himself (the novel’s title actually comes from an old Cockney expression).  

The language Burgess created is called NASDAT, and it is a complex blend of Slavic languages, rhyming slang, and according to the doctor’s character “a bit of gypsy talk, too.”

 I expect you to continue to be mature in this assignment, and as we explore this subject matter and this novel. British Rhyming Slang is a style and method of wordplay you need to know to be culturally conversant, and this is an important novel, but many of its components and the novel’s themes are sophisticated.

Cockney slang

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

1.    Read more about British Rhyming Slang.

2.    Peruse at some translators/dictionaries of BRS:

Cockney Rhyming Slang Translator

Webster's Cockney Rhyming Slang Dictionary

3.    Look at the NADSAT translator, and try to become familiar with some of the terms Burgess is using in the novel, and that we encountered in Chapter 1.

4.    In your Writer’s Log: please write a short scene using three examples of British Rhyming Slang, and three pieces of NADSAT. You do not have to use the characters from A Clockwork Orange, or write in screenplay/dialogue, but you must set up the scene so that we can understand what you are saying from context.

  1. Be prepared to read your scene aloud next week. This assignment is worth 100 points.
  2.