Oi (interjection)

Oi (interjection)

Oi ( /ɔɪ/) is an interjection used in British English to get the attention of another person or to express surprise or disapproval.

"Oi" was first documented in the 1930s and is particularly associated with working class and Cockney speech. It is effectively a local pronunciation of "hoy" (see H-dropping), an older expression. A study of the Cockney dialect in the 1950s found that whether it was being used to call attention or as a challenge depended on its tone and abruptness. The author noted that the expression is "jaunty and self-assertive" as well as "intensely cockney".

Any time you're Lambeth way,
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all
Doin' the Lambeth Walk. Oi!

The 1937 musical song The Lambeth Walk from Me and My Girl ends with a cry of "Oi!", expressing defiance and transgression of the working class characters; it was newsworthy when the King and Queen "with the rest of the audience, cocked their thumbs and shouted Oi!" It is used in informal Japanese in the same way as in English, typically by older men to subordinates; an elongated ōi is used when someone is at a distance. A poll of non-English speakers by the British Council in 2004 found that "oi" was considered the 61st most beautiful word in the English language. A spokesman commented that "Oi is not a word that I would've thought turned up in English manuals all that often." "Oi" was added to the list of acceptable words in US Scrabble in 2006.