literature - Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers: What accent is Dickens portraying?


In Dickens' Pickwick Papers, there's a character "Sam Weller". Weller's dialogue is written somewhat phonetically, I presume, but I'm struggling to understand what accent Dickens is trying to portray. The main peculiarities of Weller's speech are using "v" where there should be a "w" and a "w" when there should be a "v". For example, he says "wery" instead of "very" and "avay" instead of "away". Weller is supposed to be from London, but this doesn't seem like any kind of London accent I've heard. Is this a particular archaic accent?


More importantly, what is Dickens telling us about Sam Weller by having him speak like this?



Answer



It's supposed to represent 19th century Cockney, a working-class London dialect. I don't know if Cockneys actually switched v's & w's like this; it seems more likely to me they pronounced both letters in the same way, perhaps like a v but not quite touching the lips to the teeth, /ʋ/.


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