The world’s first Cockney language learning app is set to be launched tomorrow available free to all Londoners.
Language expert Nat Dinham has been researching how to translate this traditional East End dialect into a language learning tool for two years, and now has a product to bring to market.
There has been more applicants to be the voice of Cockney than any previous language, she said, although there is some controversy over what is and isn’t Cockney. There are also lots of traditional Cockney words for parts of the body and money but more modern language is not always represented.
“We’ve brought in some fun new modern phrases like Plastic Fantastic (Credit Card) and hope it will make people smile, celebrate and most importantly debate the language feeding back on words in use,” Dinham said.
“Where there isn’t something genuine we’ve still pronounced words as they would be in the East End dropping ‘t’s and ‘h’s’ all over the place! Our app is all about learning language as it’s actually spoken, by people on the street, so we’ve tried to recreate Cockney grammar and syntax, as well as slang.”
The launch of Cockney coincides with the Roman Road Summer Festival 2016, where uTalk, the language learning company behind the app, will be providing Cockney language lessons for locals.
Tabitha Stapely, CEO of the Roman Road Trust has welcomed the Cockney initiative.
“We’re excited to be working with uTalk to bring this traditional dialect alive. We wanted to make Cockney a feature of the festival and think people young and old will have fun learning some of the phrases and words.”