johannagerwin

Abdul Scissorhands in Aldgate East

Hidden away in a quiet backstreet off Aldgate East with its office blocks, there’s Abdul’s barber shop ‘Abdul Scissorhands’. I met him during his quiet hours, after lunch and before knocking-off time. Abdul distinguishes between ‘nice and calm’ London accents and ‘agressive and angry’ ones, the former belonging to ‘posh people’ and the latter toContinue reading “Abdul Scissorhands in Aldgate East”

Tulse Hill is not Brixton

Yesterday, I went to see Andy on the Cressingham Gardens estate in Tulse Hill, SW2, which – as he informed me – is not the same as Brixton, SW9. Andy is a born and bred South-west Londoner: born in Wimbledon and raised in Clapham Junction. ‘It makes me quite upset when people call me aContinue reading “Tulse Hill is not Brixton”

Cockney songs

This week I met with Frank, a true East Ender. He lives near Upminster, in the Essex countryside now, but spent all his childhood and youth in Forrest Gate, E7. Frank has lived in many different places in Essex and would call his own accent ‘East End twice removed’. Having worked in the construction industryContinue reading “Cockney songs”

East End memories from Essex

Last week, I spoke to husband and wife Richard and Janice in Colchester, Essex. Janice was born and raised in Tower Hamlets and remembers a blissful childhood there. When she was eleven, her family moved to Loughton, Essex, where teachers gave her a hard time for her Cockney accent. Now she would call her ownContinue reading “East End memories from Essex”

First interview bagged!

Today, I sat down with Caitlin, a PhD student from Queen Mary and true Hackney girl. We covered a lot of (London) ground from her experiences at a Hackney primary school to how her formerly MLE accent became Americanized during her undergraduate studies in the US. And of course, I got to ALL ask myContinue reading “First interview bagged!”

Information for participants

In linguistic research, the analysis of language is normally done by trained linguists on the basis of (transcribed) audio recordings. This study explicitly focusses on the knowledge and ideas you have about London dialects – simply by virtue of growing up in this speech community and hearing people around you. In other words, in thisContinue reading “Information for participants”