ABSTRACT
TH E existence of a Cockney dialect different from that represented in literary work since the eighteenth century broke in upon the literary consciousness about 1882. In a note to Captain Brassbound's Conversion, Bernard Shaw said he had taken the liberty of making a special example of Drinkwater’s Cockney dialect-“ for the benefit of the mass of readers outside London who still form their notions of Cockney dialect on Sam Weller” . He adds a personal note on the subject:
This judgment, as we shall see, is somewhat exaggerated. But it is certainly true that the vowels and diphthongs which we now consider characteristic of Cockney find little or no representation in literary Cockney before Tuer began his Cockney imitations.
