Rhyming slang in the HP series

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 192465

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "oriondruid at ..." <oriondruid at ...> wrote:

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff" <geoffbannister123@> wrote:
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.

> Snipped.
 
John:
> Hi again Geoff.
 
> Thanks for that master class on common usage of various phrases in English that derive from or are slang. Several of these I of course knew, but by no means all.
 
> I'd add Nymphadora Tonks in canon who of course has a habit of using a bit of non rhyming slang, ( as far as I know) probably derived  from Cockney (ish)language as a common greeting. Her cheery Wotcher (or alternative usage Wotcha) Harry! is an example not just of Tonk's friendliness and slight eccentricity, but also her command of Cockney/East End figures of speech. The exact meaning of this greeting can possibly be said to be exactly the same as that used by the natives of Pandora in the film Avatar, in which they greet each other with 'I see you'. Both as a  greeting and a marker of recognition.

Geoff:
Hardly a master class! There's a great stack of rhyming slang words around 
- I still get caught out...

Although not a Londoner (I moved there from Lancashire at the age of nine
and spent 45 years in the Wandsworth/Wimbledon area until I moved to the 
Exmoor area when I took early retirement) I have obviously absorbed a lot of 
"London speak". Teaching on a housing estate for over 30 years helped as 
well. I must admit that, even now, I will still hail someone rom time to time 
with a "Wotcher".

I read somewhere that this greeting is derived from "What cheer?", like a 
number of phrases which have arisen from mishearing or sloppy speech.

There are variants of speech in the HP books. For example, I see Hagrid 
as speaking with a rather coarse West Country accent. 

There has been speculation about Ron in the past. Some folk think the 
family is a West Country one because they live at Ottery St. Catchpole.
which obviously makes a UK reader think of Ottery St.Mary in Devon
and JKR herself comes from Yate, which is just on the edge of Bristol.

I often tease people by saying "Where do you think I come from?", having,
much to my regret,  lost my North Country accent- the one I most 
appreciated was "educated London". 
:-)