I was amused to read a news story today about cash machines in East London programmed to display messages in Cockney rhyming slang.
It's disappointing, though, that the cash machines give the entire rhyming phrase rather than just the first part of it: 'sausage and mash' for 'cash', for example, rather than just 'sausage'.
Mind you, dropping the first part of the phrase would make some of the messages indecipherable to the uninitiated. But isn't that part of the point?
The company behind the initiative, Bank Machine, "hopes to follow the Cockney cash machines with Brummie, Geordie, Scouse and Scots ATMs" and "keep these dialects alive in Britain", according to the Times article.
There's a lot more to a dialect than a few hand-picked, money-related phrases...
beanie (hat)
5 days ago
4 comments:
I shared the article with a friend of mine who lives in Lancs and she said she didn't think it was real Cockney being used. *shrugs* It made me giggle real or not.
I found one and had a go tonight - took photos of each screen, my favourite being 'Transaction Nigel Manselled!' Posted here
Brilliant - thanks, Nick.
I'm not sure about the cash machine using 'ya' for 'your', especially as it doesn't even do it consistently...
Good blog you've got there, too.
Ex-Londoner, here - love the idea of ATMs using rhyming slang. Perhaps the concept could be extended to, eg Geordie, Brissle ...?
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