100 years ago
This gem on Some East London Street Cries from John Wells's phonetic blog. The phonetic transcriptions are clear enough, although it's interesting to note the symbol changes over the last 100 years. What shines is the humour; I can just picture the Edwardian gent about town, observing the bustle with glee: "clearness is far from being a marked characteristic of the street salesman".
Note his pronunciation of 'what' and 'which' as 'hwot' and 'hwich', a pronunciation I have never heard outside of period films.
Note his pronunciation of 'what' and 'which' as 'hwot' and 'hwich', a pronunciation I have never heard outside of period films.