STRANGE SLANG / El extraño lenguaje de la calle RABBIT! RABBIT!

Hi my dear friends, in Madrid today it's raining cats and dogs ! so I have thought of  some special and different expressions to show you, especially  SLANG! 
What is Slang?  Slang is the language used by people in the street.  Special ways of saying words and expressions different from the current ones.  
Today, I want to speak about  "COCKNEY" which is the slang from the East of London.
There we go!

Hola queridos amigos, en Madrid hoy ¡llueve a cántaros! así que he pensado enseñaros algunas expresiones especiales y diferentes ,  especialmente  el lenguaje de la calle o Slang.
¿Qué es el Slang?  El Slang es el lenguaje que utiliza la gente en la calle.  Formas especiales de decir palabras o expresiones,  diferentes de las formas normales o corrientes.
Hoy quiero hablaros sobre el "COCKNEY" que es el lenguaje del Este de Londres.
¡Allá vamos!

Information from SPEAK UP Magazine/Living Language

RABBIT!  RABBIT!

All languages have strange expressions and English is no exception.  For instance, people in England often say "Use your loaf (pan)!  but what they mean is "Use your brain"! or "Use your intelligence"!  or "Use your head!"

Another popular expression is "to rabbit on"  which means  to talk too much.

When people speak too much, you can say "Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!"

LONDON

But why does an animal which can't talk -a rabbit- refer to talking?

And why does a loaf, which normally describes bread, refer to head?

The answer is that they are both examples of COCKNEY rhyming slang (argot que rima).

This is popular in Britain, but also in Australia.
A Cockney is a native of London .  A true Cockney is from the "East End" of London, but today the term covers all of the capital.


HOW DOES IT WORK?

In Cockney rhyming slang you take an expression that rhymes with another word.

For example:  "a loaf of bread" rhymes with "head".  You then remove the part of the phrase that rhymes:  in this case, "of bread", so "loaf" now means "head".

And in the case of "rabbit", the original phrase was "rabbit and pork" which rhymes with "talk".  You then remove the rhyming part -the words "and pork" -so "rabbit" means "talk"

MY OLD FRIEND

Another popular expression in London is "my old China".   This means "My old friend".

In English "mate" is an informal term for a friend and "China plate"  a type of porcelain,  rhymes with "mate".
One more time, you remove the second part of the expression -in this case "plate" - and so china means "mate" or "friend".

PORKIES

And then there is the expression "To tell porkies".  This means to tell lies.  The reason is that "pork pie" rhymes with "lie".
Again you remove the rhyming word "pie" and so "pork" or "porkie" means "lie".


COCKNEY  RHYMES

Here you can see  an announcement in a London shop:


                                                 COCKNEY SPOKEN  'ERE
                                                              We accept:
                    GODIVAS, MONKEYS, PONIES, EDGES, CARPETS AND VISA. 


**Cockney spoken 'ere  means "Cockney spoken here" .  Londoners are famous for not pronouncing the letter "H".  For instance, "Henry" becomes "Enry",  "hat" becomes "at"  and "hello"  becomes "ello".

**A "godiva" (short word for Lady Godiva) rhymes with "fiver" and refers to five pounds.  This is an example of Cockney rhyming slang but the others words are slang terms only.

**A "monkey" is 500 pounds.
**A "pony" is 25 pounds.
**A "carpet" is either  3 pounds or  300 pounds.
**An "edge" is 50 pence.
**And of course VISA is Visa!

It's very interesting and very difficult,  isn't it?

Could you do any cockney rhymes?

Try and tell me!

HAVE A NICE DAY!