Well kosher piece on the cockney dialect migrating to Essex and the evolving language of the East End in the Guardian. Though still not sure what nang means. Writer Nikesh Shukla makes some great points about how cockney has always been influenced by immigration:
Think about how much of cockney comes from different languages anyway, like Yiddish ("kosher"), German ("shtoom"), Romany ("wonga"). My mum always said that loads of cockney came from Hindi. "Pukka" is from the Hindi, meaning solid. "Blighty" is from the Hindi bilati, meaning foreign land. "Bandana" is from the Hindi bandhana, to tie. "Cushti", again, from the Hindi khush, or happy. Bish-bash-bosh ... No one knows where that one comes from. Except Danny Dyer.
Click on the link to have a butchers at the whole piece.
I can't find a way to contact you other than in the comments, so... I thought you might like these if you haven't seen them:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro5Q_8ZHS-Q
A 1983 TV documentary about Walton-on-the-Naze, directed by Adam Curtis. I remember watching this at the time, and being amazed the place we went on holiday was on telly. It's changed a bit since.
http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/522
A 1974 documentary about Basildon. It looks very grey and municipal, but it's wonderfully optimistic too. They have some other Essex-related films on the site too.
Thanks Phil I'll check them out!
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