I grew up in "PA Dutch" country; the one that I always remember is their verb to "rid" - it means clean up, usually in the context of the kitchen or dining room table - to "rid the table." They also say things like "wonderful good."

The Cockney link wouldn't work for me; I only remember their saying for hat was "tit fer," (from the expression "tit for tat" -the "tat" rhymes w/hat, see the logic?). It was used a lot by non-Cocknies in the part of England where I was staying (Kent); I tend to still use often myself; it's sort of colorful - all their slang seemed colorful to exotic to me.

Not to be outdone, in the Navy we had many unique sayings; for example, a small coffee or snack shop is a "gee dunk," who knows why?? (sometimes spelled "gee donk") When I was in tech school ("class A school") being put "on the tree" meant being forced to spend extra hours studying in the classroom at night. Then there are the sayings like "when Christ was a seaman deuce" meaning a very long time ago; a "seaman deuce" was the first rank after boot camp. "Ropeyarn," if I remember correctly, was time off for personal business, reportedly derived from time to tar & braid the pigtails of sailors of old (from the days of "wooden ships & iron men").

In the Army we called a new 2nd Lt a "butter bars" (gold colored bar for the rank insignia), a Captain had "railroad tracks" (2 paralell silver bars) for the rank insignia.

In india the common slang for a proprietor of an establishment, perhaps as small as a single pedal-driven ricksha, was "wallah," pronounced wall-uh, usually combined with another explanatory word, like "ricksha wallah," or "shop wallah." Often a person might be addressed as "babu," not particularily derogatory, though several people I knew - Old India Hands - insisted it was derived from some Englishmen derisively referring to Indians as "babboons."

Several years ago we bought onr of those massive old-time near-encyclopedic dictionaries from a flea market in San Antonio. We have on it's own lighted stand, it is one of our prized possessions. It's surprising how many colloquialisms are in it. Also great for looking up interesting words or usages in songs, like "baize" (gaming table cover) & "morroco" (in context meant a certain color cloth) from Stan Roger's "Sailor's Rest."

Cheers, BK