Chavish style

Recently, I have heard the expression "chav" many times. What is the exact definition of the term? I have an idea about what it means, but I'm not totally sure.
My other question is: does a particular chavish accent exist or is the only thing the accents of different chavs have in common is being sloppy or substandard? Thank you in advance.

Chavs are called Neds here in Scotland.....they all come from the same mould.....they are the curse of the neighbourhood watch......they wear designer label gear and the latest trainers and back to front baseball caps or hoodies to hide their spotty faces......have minimal education qualifications and maximum disruptive qualifications, causing grief to everyone unfortunate enough to cross their path...they gather in groups in shopping precincts/malls, town centres, council estates......they slurp out of cans of ale or bottles of voddie....they nick laptops and dvd players from cars or take delight in jumping up on top of them doing weird tribal dances on the car roofs....

Chavish/Neddish accent? Chavs/Neds are found all over the UK, but are mainly concentrated in areas with large, low income (usually provided by the British taxpayers in the form of social welfare) single parent council estates* so the accents accord to that fact......I said minimal educational qualifications so their standard of spoken English reflects that spot on.

If you ever come to the UK you may well see them in action if you go to the "right" places.

*Council estates = housing developments owned by local councils (local Government authorities) and rented out to tenants, with all benefits in kind provided...as I say, by the hard working taxpayers. Drug dealing in council states is rife. A typical job advert in such areas: "Litter pickers - permanent and continuous on going work provided 24/7".


http://www.chavworld.co.uk/chav.htm

CHAV
The press in Britain has recently been having fun mocking a group for which pejorative descriptions have been created such as “non-educated delinquents” and “the burgeoning peasant underclass”. The subjects of these derogatory descriptions are said to be set apart by ignorance, fecklessness, mindless violence and bad taste.

To illustrate the last of these, critics point to their style of dress: a love of flashy gold jewellery (hooped earrings, thick neck chains, sovereign rings and heavy bangles, which all may be lumped together under the term bling-bling); the wearing of white trainers (in what is called “prison white”, so clean that they look new); clothes in fashionable brands with very prominent logos; and baseball caps, frequently in Burberry check, a favourite style. The women, the Daily Mail wrote recently in a characteristic burst of maidenly distaste, “pull their shoddily dyed hair back in that ultra-tight bun known as a ‘council-house facelift’, wear skirts too short for their mottled blue thighs, and expose too much of their distressingly flabby midriffs”.

This upsurge of popular distaste towards one group may be evidence for a cultural shift back towards a class-ridden British society—at least the fear that it might be so is causing some alarm in liberal circles. Critics point to the copying of the style by many younger television celebrities as a further dumbing-down of that medium. Much of the attention is due to the experience of a Web site, which was intended to be humorous but which was infiltrated by extremists who threatened to turn it into a hate site.

From a linguistic perspective the most interesting aspect is the wide variety of local names given to the type. Scots call them neds (often said to be an acronym of “non-educated delinquents”, but that’s a folk etymology, given credence by being mentioned as fact during a debate in the Scottish parliament in 2003; it’s actually from an abridged form of the given name Edward, which was attached to this group in the period of the teddy-boys, who dressed in a version of Edwardian costume), while Liverpudlians prefer scallies (a term of long-standing for a boisterous, disruptive or irresponsible young man); Kev is common around London (presumably from the given name Kevin, common among this group and popularised through the portrayal on his television show by the comedian Harry Enfield of an idiotic teenager with that name). Other terms recorded from various parts of the country are smicks, spides, moakes and steeks (all from Belfast), plus bazzas, scuffheads, stigs, skangers, yarcos, and kappa slappers (girls who wear Kappa brand tracksuits, slapper being British slang for a promiscuous or vulgar woman).

The term that has become especially widely known in recent weeks, at least in southern England, is the one borrowed for the name of the Web site, chav. A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated. It is also commonly said that it's an acronym, either from “Council House And Violent” or “Cheltenham Average” (the word being widely known in that area). As usual, we must treat supposed acronymic origins with the greatest suspicion; these examples are definitely recent after-the-event inventions as attempts to explain the word, though very widely known and believed.

But it seems that the word is from a much older underclass, the gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is new to most people.

Other terms for the class also have Romany connections; another is charver, Romany for prostitute. Yet another is the deeply insulting pikey, presumably from the Kentish dialect term for gypsy that was borrowed from turnpike, so a person who travels the roads.

Did chavi die out, only to be reinvented recently? That seems hardly likely from the written and anecdotal evidence, and many correspondents report that it is well known to them as a spoken term in various parts of the country; what we’re seeing is a term that has been in active but inconspicuous use for the last 150 years suddenly bursting out into wider popular use in a new sense through circumstances we don’t fully understand.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm

"Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century"

Also, chavi is a slang word for "child" or "baby" in some parts of England, especially in the South East.

"My other question is: does a particular chavish accent exist or is the only thing the accents of different chavs have in common is being sloppy or substandard? "

I think there is a chav accent, or "council estate speak" as it is sometimes know.

If you want to listen to how chavs speak then watch these internet videos - http://www.fat-pie.com/chavs.htm

They are several different films of a real-life chav, and you get an insight into what chavs look like, how they speak and how they live their lives.
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Devvo is Darren Devonshire, a "chav" from the Doncaster/Hull area. Devvo lets me follow him around and film his life in exchange for cigarettes, alcohol and small change. I suppose the following films are just documentaries about the "chav" scene/problem in Northern England.

The following videos contain offensive language, drug consumption, violence and generally shocking scenes of chav life...and remember; all I do is film him, I am not responsible for what he does.

All episodes load up on seperate pages now just like the flashtoons do. They're no longer windows media format so people on Macs and Linux should be able to watch them no problems.

Thanks, chav-experts :-) Everyone seems to be quite up-to-date, except for me!
I haven't been in the UK since 1999. This term wasn't really widespread that time... Or maybe I'm the only one who didn't encounter it:-( :-), since I didn't usually frequent the "right" places. I was too young...LOL:-))

Damian, I know what council estates are!!! :-)) By the way, thanks for explaining it. Eventually, you are not supposed to know that I know it. It's nice to see that there are some helpful people besides the louts, whose comments really shock me sometimes (I'm sure you know whom I'm talking about:-)).

Sorry, a mistake: I haven't been TO the UK...

Liz....nae probs. I'm no chav expert...or as we say here - ned expert (I'm in Scotland). It's just that we all know what neds/chavs are. If you feel like knowing more about the bling bling underlings just log into their one of their own chat forums:

http://www.chavworld.co.uk/forum/forum-2.html

Oh, dear! I don't want to be one of them! However, I would certainly please one of my neighbours who has her hairdresser make her a "council-house facelift", though, she is not a chav (about 58 years old)!:-)) But I wouldn't be surprised if she was one of them, after knowing a fourtysomething punk in our town.:-)) He is said to have been a punk in the 80s, and he is still the same. And what's more, he is hanging out with a man (of 30, I think) who looks exactly like Howard Jones in the 80s :-) You can imagine that everyone is staring at them in that relatively small town... Strange, isn't it?

Hey, Adam, I've watched some of the films about Devvo. Well, I don't know how to put it... If this guy is trying hard enough he's gonna reach the intellectual standard of Lotto Lout Michael Carroll :-)

Having spent some time in that area, I'm more or less accustomed to this kind of accent, but sometimes I had a hard time of deciphering what he was trying to say. Besides, I was really impressed by his exremely "wide" range of vocabulary :-) I started to count his favourite word (f-word) but I gave it up after a couple of minutes.

Is he always totally K.O.? It would be intersting to see him in one of his sober moments, if there are any...

people were saying about what chav stands for , chav stand for

Council Housed And Violent