Jockney Sparrers

”AWIGHT, squire. Come and ‘ave a butchers at what the old trouble and strife’s done…’

Gateway To Paradise

It’s Thursday, it must be Glasgow. No, not the East End of London nor even Guy Ritchie’s house, but the West End of Glasgae.

The Independent reports that the guttural speech of Glaswegians – ‘considered among Scotland’s last, and most impenetrable, bastions’ – is succumbing to the English invasion.

Language experts from the city’s university say addiction to BBC’s EastEnders is responsible for the erosion of Glasgow’s ‘gallus’ glottal stop.

Teenagers in the city are apparently saying ‘bovver’ for ‘bother’, ‘fink’ for ‘think’ and ‘dodgy geezer’ for ‘wayward young man’.

The new language is called ‘jockney’ and is most common among non-mobile, working-class adolescents.

Of course, for them EastEnders is like Dallas and Dynasty were for British TV audiences in the 1980s – an impossibly glamorous fantasy.’

Posted: 4th, March 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink