Rhyming slang in the HP series

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 192461

Geoff:
Since John and I have deviated off-topic a few posts ago, I thought I would 
legitimise things and look at Cockney rhyming slang in the context of the 
HP books.

If you know about rhyming slang, skip details in any following paragraphs 
with which you are familiar.

A true Cockney is a Londoner born within the sound of Bow Bells, the bells 
of St, Mary-le-Bow, Bow being a district in the inner East End of London. 
Rhyming slang is a style of speaking where a word is replaced by one with 
which it rhymes and this is used in regular speech. Just to confuse things, 
if the rhyme is two words, the second word is often omitted. Many rhyming 
slang phrases have been adopted by non-Cockney groups and are not 
known as such.

To give an example, I grew up n the North of England and moved to London 
with my family at the tender age of 9, speaking with a broad Lancashire 
accent. One early instance of not understanding the pattern was in my early d
ays at secondary school when guys would do something like pulling out a 
comb with a remark like "I must tidy up my barnet". Obviously, the word had 
something to do with hair, but it was some years before I discovered that the 
ull rhyming slang was "Barnet Fair". Barnet is a area of North London, several 
miles out from the centre (and curiously outside Cockney territory). Anyone 
with London knowledge may recognise it as one of the terminal stations on 
the London Underground Northern Line. Another which is often used in 
conversation when a listener does not get what is being said is "Use your loaf".  Translation: Loaf = Load of bread = Head. Hence "Use your head", "Use your 
brain", "Think".

To link to canon I did a little researching into rhyming slang in HP and did 
uncover some cases; there may be more. The only Londoner who readily 
comes to mind is Dean Thomas who is not featured and the others come 
from a variety of regions and backgrounds They are spoken by a range of 
folk, indicating that the slang is widely used.

So, here are a few examples for your perusal. 

(1) "rabbit" = "rabbit and pork" = talk (dreadful rhyme! generally means 
talking a lot)

`He (Hagrid) looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas 
Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we 
know what the dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St-"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. 
"Don' go shouting about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said 
Harry, "about what's guarding the Sgtone apart from Fluffy-"
"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen = come an; see me later. I'm not 
promisin' I'll tell yeh anything mind but don' go rabbitin' about it in 
here."'
(PS "Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback" UK edition p.168)

(2) "dicky bird" = word.

`Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look and stoked the fire vigorously 
to bring the kettle back to the boil.
"Any news of Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo?" Mr. Weasley asked, as Bagman 
settled himself down on the grass beside them all.
"Not a dicky bird," said Bagman comfortably. "But she'll turn up
"'

(GOF "Bagman and Crouch" p.82 UK edition)

(3) "berk" is a double contraction. "Berk" pronounced as spelt = "Berkshire". 
This is an English county to the west of London and is pronounced "BArkshire", 
one of those odd "e"s sounded as "a"s – such as "Derby" and "clerk". This 
in turn = "Berkshire hunt" and is the rhyming slang for a word which my 
sensibilities will not allow me to type save to say that it is an extremely 
unpleasant word in the f-word category originally used very pejoratively. 
However, over the years, possibly because many people do not know its 
source, it has become a very mild word, often used jokingly with friends 
and meaning "silly" or "stupid".

`Lupin looked sideways at Sirius, then said, "Look, Harry, what you've got 
to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at 
whatever they did – everyone thought they were the height of cool - if they 
sometimes got a bit carried away-"
"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean." said Sirius.
Lupin smiled.'

(OOTP "Careers Advice" UK edition pp.590/91)

`"Mr. Dumbledore?" said Hermione rather timidly, "Is that your sister? 
Ariana?"
"Yes," said Aberforth tersely. "Been reading Rita Skeeter, have you missy?"
Even by the rosy light of the fire it was clear that Hermione had turned 
red.
"Elphias Doge mentioned her to us," said Harry, trying to spare Hermione.
"That old berk," muttered Aberforth, taking another swig of mead. 
"Thought the sun shone out of my brother's every orifice, he did."

(DH "the Missing Mirror" UK edition p.454)

(4) "Scarper" = derived from Scapa Flow" = to go (in the sense of 
running away. Scapa Flow was a very large Naval  base in the North of 
Scotland.

`(Aberforth speaking about Ariana's death}
"Gone," croaked Aberforth. "Gone forever."
He wiped his nose on his cuff and cleared his throat.
"Course, Grindelwald scarpered. He had a bit of a track record 
already, back in his own country and he didn't want Ariana set to 
his account also."'

(DH "The Missing Mirrror" UK edition p.457)

I think you will realise from these examples that rhyming slang mainly 
tends to be used in casual conversation but they will also show that a 
range of folk use them and that they fulfil differing needs. As I have 
already said, many people use it without realising that it originates in 
this language quirk of London but hopefully, these notes might shed 
a little more light on idiomatic UK English for those who have not grown 
up learning its delights in their childhood.