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I read a couple of comments to that effect on this Youtube video, which is basically a man ranting in Cockney from the movie Football Factory (2004). The comments bemoan American ignorance about the actual frequency of Cockney speakers, and suggest that it's all but disappeared amongst the working class except in a few areas. Saddening, if true. Is it? (I'm not looking for a thesis, just "man-on-the-street" type opinions.)

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I thought Cockney had been evolving into 'Estuary English'. – Mitch Apr 11 '11 at 20:12
@Mitch Can I get a reference? – Billare Apr 12 '11 at 0:14
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Well, 'I thought' means 'I heard it somewhere but have absolutely no evidence for it. So I googled it. They seem to be related but not identical. See Estuary English and Cockney. Re: another question, EE is non-rhotic and keeps 'th', where Cockney is rhotic and fronts 'th' to 'f'. – Mitch Apr 12 '11 at 0:36
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Also, not actually knowing anything but what I get from the internet, Jafaican seems to be more of a West-End black cool wannabe thing (Ali G) and Cockney is more of an East-ender white thing. So 'replaced' makes it sound like one population is changing dialects, but the reality looks like just that in the separate populations, there is more media attention to one rather than the other. – Mitch Apr 12 '11 at 0:46
And then there's Mockney – Snubian Apr 12 '11 at 3:17

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The following link probably tells more about Scouse than most people want to know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English

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What's it got to do with Scouse? – e100 May 21 '11 at 13:58

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