Victorian Slang - How To Talk Like A 19th Century Eastender.

[@GrilloTheFlightless]

My grandfather, who passed away last year aged 99, told an interesting story regarding the contents of sausages. It relates to the village butcher when he was growing up, a curmudgeonly feller by all accounts, who said that he’d never eat anyone else’s sausages because he didn’t know what was in them. He also said he’d never eat his own sausages because he DID know what was in them. No wonder they got called ‘bags of mystery’.

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Brilliant story. That made me smile.

[@ladygrinningsoul992]

I’m 58 and my grandad was a dock worker and this is how he talked bought back fantastic memories Mukka

[@JackTheRipperTours]

'Cor blimey!

[@emmajanewatts4388]

I’m going to call sausages mystery bags from now on 😂

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Even in the shop? Half a dozen bags of mystery please!

[@emmajanewatts4388]

@@JackTheRipperTours I did last week, they had no clue what I was on about lol

[@kimkauffung7687]

Same with hot dogs. 😆

[@Rollin_L]

“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” -John Godfrey Saxe, quoted in the Daily Cleveland Herald, March 29, 1869

[@KellyfromMemphis]

“Bags of mystery”!!! Hahaha!! So true even today! 😂😂😂

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Just had them for supper!

[@LesterMoore]

Otto Von Bismarck said, "It's well that the citizen doesn't know how sausages and politics are made." Still true today.

[@jelkel25]

Yes, it was doppelganger/banger in the 70s/80s

[@emmajanewatts4388]

Especially the cheap ones

[@janrogers8352]

I worked out Chuckaboo, since some of my in laws who lived up north, would use the term Chuck - as in, 'what's up chuck?' and that was only a few years ago. I always thought your face was your boat race, at least it was, according to my grandfather who was born in 1894.

[@JohnJohnson-tw8qk]

I love looking at old photos of victorian London thinking is that Jack the ripper could he be in one of the pictures who knows

[@brianbommarito3376]

The Ripper probably knew and understood or even spoke this language very well.

[@davesmith7432]

Thanks for posting another cool, unique video my dear chuckaboo!

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@eadweard.]

Mutton shunter.

[@markrowley2739]

Brilliant, always wondered about the dialect of the time and this just answered a lot of my questions. Thank you for all your informative content.

[@JackTheRipperTours]

My pleasure!

[@jackiereynolds2888]

I remember getting off a plane at London airport when I was a kid, - this stewardess met me at the gate - and I couldn't understand a word she said to me ! Every single language in the word has dialects, slang, colloquialisms and expressions - even those spoken in the same geographical area.

[@beckerabstracts]

I am now regretting that I bought sausages today.

[@trevorbyron9448]

Amazing...they didn't know it back then that we'd take a slice of the times to relish today... though 150 yrs back...at the time that was the most modern times...such an iconic period... would have been amazing if one could have lived through the times to date. What tales to tell

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Too true, Trevor.

[@whittlepixels5633]

Charles Dickens as a victorian, was completely legible and I had no problem at all understanding his writings.

[@JoMad53]

Err…he wasn’t a cockney. Strictly speaking, that is someone born within the sound of Bow bells, but it covers most of the poor districts of East London. My Grandad used some of these expressions, allegedly to avoid police or informers understanding what plots were being hatched.

[@janrogers8352]

Charles Dickens became successful so he would have used the same language as the middle classes. I don't doubt he knew some slang from when his father was in the Marshalsea prison and he (aged 12) was sent to work in a boot blacking factory.

[@jelkel25]

Even the most East End of East Ender's wouldn't throw that much slang into one conversation usually but your point is valid, the slang changes over time and area of London it's being spoken in.

[@williamarmstrong646]

I cannot envisage a Londoner using this lingo saying "my" ; they'd say "me".

[@jessicamilestone4026]

Love this channel

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Thank you, Jessica, pleased that you like it.

[@Richard-Hawkins.]

There's an old English ballad called "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" I'm guessing that's where the slang came from.

[@JackTheRipperTours]

That is a distinct possibility, Richard.

[@mao2233]

I believe that "Chevy Chase" is Cockney rhyming slang for face. If not, egg on my Chevy Chase.

[@janrogers8352]

@@mao2233 it was also called your boat race.

[@DavidLeeAndrews]

Chevy Chase is Jack the Ripper? Ha! Nice video, my old China, as I didn’t know some of that slang 👍

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Could well be David!

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

If you are headed back there, you'd better brush up!

[@Westeross]

A cove would think you was born ‘n raised within earshot of the bells 👍🏻🇦🇺👍🏻

[@JackTheRipperTours]

'cor blimey Kate, very nice of you!

[@connsaunders9600]

Kate Shaw Bow Bells have nothing to do with the East End. They are situated in St Mary le Bow Cheapside, in the City, close to the Aldwych - which was for hundreds of years the slum district of London, due to the streets of ancient Tudor houses that the Great Fire had never reached. They were demolished in the beginning of 20th century to build Kingsway.

[@janrogers8352]

@@connsaunders9600 Perhaps the use of rhyming slang was far more common than people think. A cockney was born within the sound of Bow Bells and they were noted for their use of rhyming slang, many of us grew up knowing our face, was our boat race - which is cockney rhyming slang. The East End must have had it's own variations, which is why the two areas get linked in people's minds, since they hear rhyming slang and assume it's cockney.

[@gb3007]

Boat race, me ol China, not chevy chase. My gt gt grandfather worked in a munitions factory in East Ham, My Nan was born in Poplar in the 30s and the family lived in East Ham when it was still Essex. So it's on with the daisy's, off down the frog to the rub a dub for a swift mothers ruin, and don't forget yer titfer. Great stuff by the way.

[@searcher7478]

Hahahaa absolutely BRILLIANT!!

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Thank you.

[@diddsdaddiddsdad6865]

Being from the east end . I haven’t herd of all but one. Cockney rhyming that is still used today. I’ll still use Dick as being hill. Tom Dick. Must have derived from the original.

[@mickmcguire4571]

Brilliant well done 👍👍

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@jane.c.c]

So the actor Chevy Chase got his name from cockney rhyming slang? Wow! Never knew that..I always thought 'face' was boat race?

[@madmatmp]

It’s a good video. The Chevy Chase = Face is a curious slang word. Are we saying that the Great American comic took his stage name from an old East London Slang term. I’m not entirely sure because I always thought that the slang was from Chevy Chase himself. Which one came first, the Great Actor or the interesting Slang. It’s that Chicken and the Egg syndrome.

[@mrdee1986]

I doubt very much that Chevy Chase when looking for a stage name if in fact he ever was looking for a stage name would have taken it from an old East End slang term. If that was the case then what is or was a Chevy Chase, we know what a boat race is,it's boats in a competitive race . No I just think the author of the vid has made an understandable mistake, we all do from time to time but never the less it's still a great video 😀

[@TheWinterwraith]

‘The Ballad of Chevy Chase’ is an old English folk ballad from Northumberland in northern most England. Possibly about Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy, who was made famous in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. I suspect that the slang for face comes from the fact that Henry had Hotspur’s head displayed on a pole in Shrewsbury market, so his boat race would have been visible to all. That’s my theory anyway.

[@ImCarolB]

I always say, "That's the ticket" when the right thing shows up. I guess I read too many old books!

[@georgerobartes2008]

A great many words had been carried through from early modern English from the 17th Century . Morbs is from morbidity , dead or shagged or knackered ( from slaughter work ) out . Tom and Dick is ' sick ' , shortened to Dick and the rhyming slang was developed by the ' costermongers ' or Costard Mongers ( Costard being a type of apple very popular in London for Centuries for pies or eating ) and numerous apple sellers ( mongers) who developed rhyming slang as a type of code among traders . My favourites were the names given to ailments particularly the ' Fires#@&s ' pertaining to diarreah ! So the East End of London lingo was a combination of rhyming slang and old common words used for centuries , brought in by market traders . A useful tome of that exact date is ' Keats Etymological Dictionary ' printed in the 1880s I believe ( I lost my copy ) which is a mini Thesaurus of the English Language . Of course not everyone in the East End spoke like that as there was a large Jewish community as well as gentry travelling to the various Vaudeville theatres in the area for a night of pleasure and titillation .

[@JackTheRipperTours]

That's really a great insight, George, thanks for sharing.

[@herbert9241]

"Gaw blimey, love a duck, rub yer tummy guvnor." It is my unfortunate disposition to regularly endure the Worzelese gibberish bandied about in south Devon bookmakers. Trust me, I'd embrace those Victorian Cockneys like long, lost brothers and sisters.

[@cymro6537]

Interesting - but the narrator's accent was rather upper class to convey any sense of authenticity of 19th century Cockney slang. But a very pleasant and clear voice nonetheless.👍

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Fair enough!

[@ghostcityshelton9378]

10 + 10 is 20 11 + 11 is 20 ( Too) (Bad joke.) It's great being friends here with you also.

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Mulling it over!

[@stews9]

Killing the canary referred to canaries in a coal mine. If the miners wanted to shirk work, they'd kill the bird and say it was proof of "bad air". Which is why the birds were there in the first place, to detect carbon monoxide.

[@maryannangros7538]

I knew about "mouse"

[@richardhelliwell1210]

Many of the inhabitants were Jewish, so I guess a knowledge of Yiddish might help too!

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Good point, Richard.

[@julians7697]

If we want to improve our English vocabulary, let us enjoy learning Victorian slang from the East End of London. Excellent if you like to consider yourself Victorian Goth.

[@easy2240]

That was so cool

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Thank you.

[@sirlancealittles]

Lol. Thank God I'm ignorant. Sometimes I don't even understand the accents here in the United States. Do people from Louisiana come from Mars? Wink.

[@ianlovell6709]

I know Chevy chase is old now , but that's ridiculous 😅

[@white-dragon4424]

I've just checked and his surname is indeed Chase, but his first name is Cornelius. My guess is that he adapted his name by using Cockney Rhyming Slang when going into show business. Quite an intelligent move.

[@bobnewmanknott3433]

I am sure that you will have read Jack London's "The Abyss the decent " but I would urge you followers to do the same Regards

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Hi Bob. Yes, indeed, It is a must read, thanks for the reminder.

[@zaftra]

5:44, so that's his face then?

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Indeed,

[@mrdee1986]

I think you might be mistaken with Chevy Chase, he's an American comedy actor and not known at the time, my understanding of the slang word for face is Boat Race

[@madmatmp]

I think your correct, I think it may be a recent addition based on the actor in question. An actor who undoubtedly had that Face. It needs investigation because it’s a great question, it’s which came first the Egg or the Chicken 🐔.

[@johndiamond5445]

"The ballad of Chevy Chase" is actually a centuries old English folk song.

[@ghostcityshelton9378]

@@madmatmp The Rooster came 1st.....he saw the hen, messed around a bit ...then the hen laid an egg.🤔

[@mrdee1986]

@@johndiamond5445 That's interesting,I never knew that and always assumed Chevy Chase was the actors real or made up name and had know connection to east end rhyming slang. The plot thickens

[@DirtySanchez943]

Although I dont know you u r my pold chuckaboo...

[@starsailor49]

Spooky to think, any one of the faces in the photos could be Jack The Ripper.

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Very spooky, Peter.

[@SandsTimeDiscoBiscuitShow]

Jack the Ripper is H.H. Holmes.

[@fasthracing]

You avin a bubble?

[@JackTheRipperTours]

'cor blimey.

[@mrdee1986]

Am gunna ave a lemon squash and a dig in the grave before a put me arbour float on and go down the the frog an toad to battle cruiser for a swift half.

[@mrdee1986]

😁 Bubble bath 😅 = laugh

[@crissaconway142]

👍😄💙💜

[@JackTheRipperTours]

Thanks, Crissa.

[@erifretrats378]

all your food today is still a mystery....... plastic pre-packed pony and trap. you never know what you really are getting, you never know what the hell is in it.......... it all makes me tom and dick........... the whole system is nothing but one big con

[@geoganicus7238]

What are you on about? This is quite easily understood by anyone with half a brain that speaks modern English.