Callum: Hello I'm Callum Robertson and this is London Life
In the programme today we take a brief look at rhyming slang, an interesting
form of vocabulary where an expression which rhymes with word you mean is
used, for example, the phrase 'boat race' – the boat race is a famous sporting
event held in London but the phrase 'boat race' is also rhyming slang for 'face'.
'Race' rhymes with 'face'.
One of the features of rhyming slang is that often the word that rhymes is not
actually said. So for example 'boat race' is shortened to just 'boat'. 'She's got a
pretty boat' means she's got a pretty face.
It's not unusual to hear rhyming slang expressions all over the country but
perhaps it's best known as [bad word] rhyming slang. [bad word] is someone [bad word] from a particular part of east London, but what is rhyming slang and
how did [bad word] about?
Here is a [bad word] [bad word]  Larry Barnes to explain. What does he say the word
slang stands for and where does he say [bad word] from.
LARRY BARNES
Rhyming slang was originally, well, s – lang, secret language, which I was always taught as a
youngster, it was the secret language of the markets so that if a stallholder wanted to talk to a
stallholder on the opposite side of the street without the punters in the middle knowing what
he was talking about he'd use rhyming slang.
Callum: He says that slang stands for s – lang, secret language and that it came from the
markets. The people who work on a market are the stallholders and if they
wanted to talk to each other without the customers, or punters, as he calls them
understanding, they would use rhyming slang. Listen again
LARRY BARNES
Rhyming slang was originally, well, s – lang, secret language, which I was always taught as a
youngster, it was the secret language of the markets so that if a stallholder wanted to talk to a
stallholder on the opposite side of the street without the punters in the middle knowing what
he was talking about he'd use rhyming slang.
Callum: He goes on to give an example of a sentence using traditional rhyming slang.
LARRY BARNES
He wouldn't say do you fancy a walk down the road to the pub for a quick pint of beer, he's
say do you fancy a ball down the frog to [bad word] for a quick pint of wallop.
Callum: Mmm, I think that needs a little translation! First, let's hear the normal English
sentence again.
LARRY BARNES
He wouldn't say do you fancy a walk down the road to the pub for a quick pint of beer,
Callum: Do you fancy a walk down the road to the pub for a quick pint of beer? Now
what about the rhyming slang version?
LARRY BARNES
Do you fancy a ball down the frog to [bad word] for a quick pint of wallop,
Callum: do you fancy a ball down the frog to [bad word] for a quick pint of wallop. Let's
translate that now!
Do you fancy – would you like
ball – ball is the shortened form of the expression ball and chalk, which is [bad word] rhyming slang for 'walk'.
Next down the frog
Frog is the shortened form of frog and toad which is rhyming slang for [bad word] is rub a dub - pub
Then we have a quick pint of wallop, wallop isn't rhyming slang but it is an old
slang word for beer.
So putting that all together we have – Do you fancy a ball down to the frog for
a quick pint of wallop!
feature of rhyming slang is that it changes and develops. new book has
been published which updates rhyming slang. It's called 'Shame about the boat
race' and Duncan Black works for its publisher Collins. 
...
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Продолжение скрипта: [bad word] /downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/londonlife/scripts/londonlife_061115_rhyming.pdf