A
Londoner is someone who inhabits or originates from
London. Although the term
Londoner is generally accepted as covering all people from
Greater London, it is sometimes used to mean more narrowly a '
Cockney', and tradition has it that true Cockneys are only those who are born within the sound of
Bow Bells (i.e., the peal of the church bells of the parish church at
St Mary-le-Bow[?],
Cheapside[?], London).
The Cockneys have a very distinctive accent, quite different from the general accent of South-Eastern England. Londoners speak with a wide variety of accents from Cockney through to Received Pronunciation, via Estuary English, as well as those of the many ethnic groups there.
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