コックニーって何？～Bow Bellsの音が聴こえますか？

　初めてのロンドン出張。空港からタクシーに乗りました。英会話はマンツーマンで勉強してきたつもりなのでが、運転手の英語が全くわかりません。これはロンドンの労働者階級の人々が話すコックニー英語というものなのでそうです。

　そこで、今回はBBCのコメディ『Only Fools And Horses』を題材にして、ETC英会話のコリン先生のレッスンを受けて行きます。そもそもコックニーとは何を意味するのでしょうか。コリン先生に質問をしてみました。

A cockney is a person born in the sound of Bow bells. You know that? Bow bell is in the south London and near the Tower Bridge. This is the original cockney. When the bell ちchaim, if you can hear them in the distance, that’s a true cockney person. I lived in Bermondsey for a while. Bermondsey is very south London. But everybody is a true cockney. Nothing wrong with it, but the other people, the other side of London, they frown upon cockneys. But then again, this is the way they are. I mean it’s like you go to Osaka or places like that, their humor is very fast and quick. Their voice is a little bit different. They sound different to Tokyo people. So it’s the same policy, isn’t it? So that’s what a cockney really is, a true cockney is born in the sound of Bow bells.

And they speak from back of the throat. “You, all right, mate, governer? Take it easy.“ They really come from back of the throat. You all right mate? But they are very, how should I say, it’s very different. I’m from Yorkshire. It’s very, very different again. There are many colloquial phrases, uses, arn’t they? You know about this. And Londoners, particular, they speak very quickly. Market people, traders like him, they have repartee, they can talk so quickly with quick mind, quickly response. It just comes natural to them. It’s quite amazing.

■出演
・ETC英会話のコリン先生

■聞き手
・青樹洋文

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◆使用楽曲 (BGM)
“Toxic Rainfall” of some1else from ccMixter