The Cockney accent is synonymous with east London legends like Barbara Windsor and Michael Caine.
But even though you might not Adam and Eve it, researchers say that the dialect has now become ‘one of the most influential’ accents in the world.
According to linguistics expert Dr Amanda Cole, of the University of Essex, the distinctive accent has changed the way people speak across the UK from Reading to Glasgow.
More surprisingly, Dr Cole has found that the Cockney dialect has even influenced speakers as far as Australia and New Zealand.
While the Cockney accent is on the decline in its native heartland of London, this iconic dialect now mainly lives on in Essex.
Thanks to migration out of London after World War II, you are now much more likely to hear the distinctive vowels and dropped ‘h’ of a Cockney accent in Chelmsford than in Cheapside.
Dr Cole says: ‘What we find is Cockney has been really influential, particularly in Essex, and across the south-east and the country.
‘And a lot of people’s accents have been changing to become more Cockney-like. Not exactly Cockney, more estuary English.’
Traditionally, a true Cockney was said to be someone born within earshot of Bow Bells – referring to the church of St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside.
However, the Cockney accent and culture have spread well beyond the six-mile radius of those church bells.
The best-known example is Cockney rhyming slang, a now almost-vanished dialect featuring rhyming codes.
Phrases like ‘trouble and strife’, meaning wife, or ‘apples and pears’, meaning stairs, have become well known even as the dialect itself vanishes.
However, it is Cockney’s distinct pronunciation which has had the most impact on speakers around the country
Previous studies have shown that even Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t immune to the Cockney influence.
Comparing her speeches from 1950 to those from 1980, researchers found subtle changes in the way the Queen said words like ‘goose’ or ‘food’.
In her later speeches, she used a pronunciation which was a little closer to Cockney than the Queen’s English, with her tongue a bit further forward in her mouth.
Dr Cole told The Guardian: ‘I think what is disappearing is cockney as this sort of emblematic accent: think Barbara Windsor, Ray Winstone. That isn’t spoken by young people.
‘But actually, there is this modified cockney, this very south-eastern accent, where a lot of people do use features that are quite cockney.’
After World War II, a combination of deindustrialisation and poor living conditions lead to more than a million people leaving east London and heading to Essex.
These working-class emigrants carried with them the distinct hallmarks of a Cockney accent.
These include pronouncing ‘thing’ as ‘fing’, saying ‘ink’ instead of ‘ing’ in words like ‘something’, or changing the ‘l’ in words like ‘milk’ as a vowel so it sounds like ‘miwk’.
Dr Cole found that many of those who grew up in Essex after their parents moved from London still overwhelmingly used all of these Cockney elements.
Today, many people from Essex like Stacey Solomon still use many of those traits.
However, Dr Cole notes that younger generations are less likely to drop an ‘h’, say ‘anyfink’, or use exaggerated vowel sounds.
Writing in The Conversation, Dr Cole says: ‘”Mouth” is slightly less likely to become “mahf”.
‘They also say new things that are much less common among their London-raised parents and grandparents such as “at the end of the day” when introducing the most important point in a discussion, or saying “yous” when referring to more than one person.’
Similarly, Dr Cole notes that many of the negative stereotypes attached to the Cockney accent have now been attached to Essex.
Just as the Cockney accent has been traditionally seen as a marker of social status, people from Essex are judged to sound less intelligent, friendly, and trustworthy than people from other parts of southern England.
Dr Cole says: ‘The cockney dialect has lived a rich and colourful life. She has travelled widely, borne a large family of children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and she even met the queen. She hasn’t died – she’s just called “Essex” now.’
Meanwhile, the Cockney accent has gone on to have a surprising influence much further afield.
Traces of the accent have been found in towns like Reading, Milton Keynes and Hull.
Likewise, through popular shows like East Enders, the Cockney dialect has even managed to influence the accent of native Glaswegians almost 400 miles away.
Even stranger, Dr Cole says that the Cockney accent has influenced speakers in Australia and New Zealand due to immigration from London.
In fact, while the Cockney accent has withered in the face of prejudice against working-class accents, those distinct pronunciations have become even stronger in Australia.
When Londoners arrived in Australia, they took parts of their accent with them and although some parts have now vanished some parts have remained.
Both accents share strong similarities in the way that vowels are pronounced in certain words.
Dr Cole says: ‘Similarly to cockney, the Australian take on the word “bake” sounds, to many British ears, more like the word “bike”, which has the potential to cause some confusion.’
