So, is cockney a dialect? Like saying mid-western or southern, here?

>Exactly, just as I explained in the brackets. Quite often Brits say "Blimey". Another antiquated cockney one you might have heard (on stereotypical British films say - e.g. B&W war films) "Lummey" (corruption of "love me"). Hence "Cor lumme" (or "Gor lumme") :- "God love me"
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>>What does blimey mean? Is that the derivation if blind me? Some County Cork friends of mine used to say it fairly often. Well, that and a few others that wouldn't mean much here in the States, but would in Europe.
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>>>(cockney) Gorblimey (corruption of God blind me)