I never told you the name of the band we listened to at the beginning of class. It was Guided by Voices.

Here are the Sex Pistols. Upon listening, I’m not sure this is what linguists call “East London English” or “Cockney”. But it’s sure not RP.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z2M_hpoPwk[/youtube]

For what it’s worth, Johnny Rotten/John Lydon is a working class Londoner by upbringing.

Here‘s a recent article mentioning Mick Jagger’s “Mockney”, and also nicely pointing out a little American phonology in his speech (Do you know what the difference in London English is? This is a case of contrast neutralization in American English that we haven’t talked about – what’s the generalization?)

But is it really “Mockney” that Jagger is speaking? I’m not at all sure that he doesn’t speak this way natively. He and Keith Richards, who is from London with working class parents, went to primary school together…