Editing Cockney (section)

===Migration and evolution===
A dialectological study of [[Leytonstone]] in 1964 found that the area's dialect was very similar to that recorded in Bethnal Green by [[Eva Sivertsen]], but there were still some features that distinguished Leytonstone speech from Cockney.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Werth |first=P.N. |date=1965 |title=The Dialect of Leytonstone, East London |type=Bachelor |page=16 |publisher=University of Leeds |url=https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/410290/the_dialect_of_leytonstone_east_london |access-date=27 February 2018 |archive-date=28 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228041359/https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/410290/the_dialect_of_leytonstone_east_london |url-status=live }}</ref>

Linguistic research conducted in the early 2010s suggests that today, some aspects of the Cockney accent are declining in usage within multicultural areas, where some traditional features of Cockney have been displaced by [[Multicultural London English]], a [[multiethnolect]] particularly common amongst young people from diverse backgrounds.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10473059 |title=Cockney to disappear from London 'within 30 years' |publisher=BBC |access-date=1 October 2010 |date=1 July 2010 |archive-date=19 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319182516/https://www.bbc.com/news/10473059 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, the [[glottal stop]], double negatives, and the [[L-vocalisation|vocalisation of the dark L]] (and other features of Cockney speech) are among the Cockney influences on Multicultural London English, and some [[rhyming slang]] terms are still in common usage.

An influential July 2010 report by [[Paul Kerswill]], professor of sociolinguistics at [[Lancaster University]], ''Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition, and diffusion of a new variety'', predicted that the Cockney accent would disappear from London's streets within 30 years.<ref name="ReferenceB" /> The study, funded by the [[Economic and Social Research Council]], said that the accent, which has been around for more than 500 years, is being replaced in London by a new hybrid language. "Cockney in the East End is now transforming itself into Multicultural London English, a new, melting-pot mixture of all those people living here who learned [[English as a second language]]", Kerswill said.<ref name="ReferenceB" />

A series of [[New Towns in the United Kingdom|new]] and expanded towns have often had a strong influence on local speech. Many areas beyond the capital have become Cockney-speaking to a greater or lesser degree, including the new towns of [[Hemel Hempstead]], [[Basildon]], and [[Harlow]], and expanded towns such as [[Grays, Essex|Grays]], [[Chelmsford]] and [[Southend]]. However, this is, except where least mixed, difficult to discern because of common features: linguistic historian and researcher of early dialects [[Alexander John Ellis]] in 1890 stated that Cockney developed owing to the influence of Essex dialect on London speech.{{Sfnp|Ellis|1890|pp=35, 57, 58}}

Writing in 1981, the dialectologist Peter Wright identified the building of the [[Becontree]] estate in [[Dagenham]] as influential in the spread of the Cockney dialect. This vast estate was built by the [[Corporation of London]] to house poor East Enders in a previously rural area of Essex. The residents typically kept their Cockney dialect rather than adopt an Essex dialect.{{Sfnp|Wright|1981|p=146}} Wright also reports that the Cockney dialect spread along the main railway routes to towns in the surrounding counties as early as 1923, spreading further after World War II when many refugees left London owing to the bombing, and continuing to speak Cockney in their new homes.{{Sfnp|Wright|1981|p=147}}

A more distant example where the accent stands out is [[Thetford]] in Norfolk, which tripled in size from 1957 in a deliberate attempt to attract Londoners by providing social housing funded by the London County Council.<ref>[https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2019/12/21/the-cockneys-of-thetford The Cockneys of Thetford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618232719/https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2019/12/21/the-cockneys-of-thetford |date=18 June 2020 }}, ''The Economist'', 21 December 2019</ref>