Estuary English is a name given to the formulation(s) of English widely spoken in South East England and the East of England; especially along the River Thames and its estuary, which is where the two regions meet. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States South East England is one of the nine official Regions of England. The East of England is one of the nine official Regions of England. The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. The Thames Estuary is the area in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea. Estuary English is commonly described as a hybrid of Received Pronunciation (RP) and South Eastern Accents, particularly from the London, Kent and Essex area — i. Received Pronunciation ( RP) is a form of Pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as Southern English English is a phrase given to describe the different dialects and accents of English English spoken in southern England. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format Essex is a county in the East of England. The County town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common e. , the area around the Thames Estuary. The variety first came to public prominence in an article by David Rosewarne in the Times Educational Supplement in October 1984. The Times Educational Supplement ( TES) is a weekly UK Publication covering the world of primary, secondary Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) ^[1] Rosewarne argued that it may eventually replace RP as the Standard English pronunciation. Studies have indicated that Estuary English is not a single coherent form of English; rather, the reality behind the construct consists of some (but not all) phonetic features of working-class London speech spreading at various rates socially into middle-class speech and geographically into other accents of south-eastern England. A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular Culture or Society ^[2][3]

Contents 1 Features 2 Use of Estuary English 3 References 4 See also 5 Further reading 6 External links

Features

Estuary English is characterized by the following features:

• Non-rhoticity. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented
• Use of intrusive R. Linking R and intrusive R are phonological phenomena that occur in many non- rhotic dialects of English.
• A broad A (ɑː) in words such as bath, grass, laugh, etc. Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation This is often seen as the litmus test of a South East accent, but it has only spread to rural areas of the South East in the last forty years.
• T-glottalization, i. T-glottalization is a process that occurs for many English speakers that causes the phoneme /t/ to be pronounced as the Glottal stop in certain positions e. , using some glottal stops: that is, t is sounded as a glottal occlusion instead of being fully pronounced when it occurs before a consonant or at the end of words, as in eight or McCartney and it can also occur between vowels, as in Cockney or southern dialects, e. This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal g. , water (pronounced as [woʊʔə]). Females show much higher glottaling scores than males. ^[4]
• Yod-coalescence, i. The phonological history of English consonant clusters is part of the Phonological history of the English language in terms of changes in the Phonology of Consonant e. , the use of the affricates /ʤ/ and /ʧ/ instead of the clusters /dj/ and /tj/ in words like dune and Tuesday. Thus, these words sound like June and choose day, respectively.
• Vowels:
  • /eɪ/ → [ɛ̝ɪ], [ɛɪ], [ɛ̞ɪ], or [æɪ]: [fɛɪs] face
  • /əʊ/ → [əʊ], [ɐʊ], [əʏ], or [ɐʏ]: [ɡəʊʔ] goat
  • /aɪ/ → [a̠ɪ], [ɑɪ], [ɑ̟ɪ], or [ɒ̟ɪ]: [pɹɑɪs] price
  • /aʊ/ → [æʊ], [æʏ], [aʊ], or [aʏ]; the offset may also be centering ([æə]): [mæʊθ] mouth
  • /æ/ → [æ], [ɛ], [ɛ̞], [a], or [a̝] : [tɹæp] trap
  • /ʌ/ → [ɐ̟], [ɐ], or [ʌ̟] : [stɹɐʔ] strut
    • Realisations of this vowel range widely from a fully back unrounded [ʌ] and back rounded [ɒ] to fronted [ɐ̟ ̟], with predominant central [ɐ]. The back variants [ɒ ~ ʌ̹] chiefly occur before the velar nasal, as in drunk. The velar nasal is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents Fronting is most evident in female speech. Male speakers tend to use central to back realisations ([ɐ ~ ʌ̟]).
  • /ɔː/ → [oʊ] in closed syllables; in open syllables it can be [ɔə] or [ɔ̝ə] : [θoʊʔ] thought : [kɔə] core
  • /iː/ → [ɪi], [iː], or [əi]: [flɪis] fleece
  • /uː/ → [ʉ], [ʏ], or [ʉ̟]: [ɡʉs] goose

• L-vocalisation, i. In linguistics l-vocalization is a process by which an /l/ sound is replaced by a Vowel or Semivowel sound e. , the use of [o], [ʊ], or [ɯ] where RP uses [ɫ] in the final positions or in a final consonant cluster.
• Use of confrontational question tags. For example, "We're going later, aren't we?", "I said that, didn't I?"

Despite the similarity between the two dialects, the following characteristics of Cockney pronunciation are generally not considered to be present in Estuary English ^{[1] [5] [6]}:

• Th-fronting, i. The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations Th-fronting is a merger of the pronuncation of the English "th" with other sounds that occurs (historically independently in Cockney, Newfoundland e. , replacement of [θ, ð] with [f, v] (e. g. [fɪŋk] for think)
• H-dropping, i. The phonological history of English fricatives and affricates is part of the Phonological history of the English language in terms of changes in the Phonology of e. , Dropping [h] in stressed words (e. g. [æʔ] for hat)
• Double negation. A double negative occurs when two forms of Negation are used in the same sentence. However, Estuary English may use never in case where not would be standard. For example, "he did not" [in reference to a single occasion] might become "he never did".
• Replacement of [ɹ] with [ʋ] is not found in Estuary, and is also very much in decline amongst Cockney speakers.

However, it should be noted that the boundary between Estuary English and Cockney is far from clear-cut ^{[7] [8]}, hence even these features of Cockney might occur occasionally in Estuary English.

In particular, it has been suggested that th-fronting is "currently making its way" into Estuary English,^[6] e. g. those from Isle of Thanet often refer to Thanet as "Plannit Fannit" (Planet Thanet). History See also Isle of Thanet The Isle of Thanet is the major part of the Thanet District

Use of Estuary English

Estuary English is widely encountered throughout the south and south-east of England, particularly among the young. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Many consider it to be a working-class accent, though it is by no means limited to the working class. Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types In the debate that surrounded a 1993 article about Estuary English, a London businessman claimed that Received Pronunciation was perceived as unfriendly, so Estuary English was now preferred for commercial purposes. ^[9]

Some people adopt the accent as a means of "blending in", appearing to be more working class, or in an attempt to appear to be "a common man" — sometimes this affectation of the accent is derisively referred to as "Mockney". In British English, the term mockney (a Portmanteau of "mock" and " Cockney " has come to be used predominantly in the media Australian scientists have found out researching the Queen's anniversary speeches that even she has shifted her accent slightly towards what is called Estuary. ^{[10] [11]}

References

See also

• Regional accents of English speakers
• List of dialects of the English language

Further reading

• Przedlacka, Joanna (2001), "Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings", Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 36: 35-50

External links

• Sounds Familiar? — Listen to regional dialects of the UK. The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language This is a list of varieties of the English language. Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in Pronunciation, Vocabulary and
• University College London: Estuary English

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