Estuary English

Estuary English is a name given to the formulation(s) of , one of the first to write a serious description of the would-be variety. Also summarized by him here. Altendorf, Ulrike (2003). ''Estuary English - Levelling at the Interface of RP and South-Eastern British English''. Tübingen: Narr .

FEATURES

Estuary English shares the following features with Cockney pronunciation:

Use of Intrusive R .

A broad A ( Open Back Unrounded Vowel ) in words such as bath, grass, laugh, etc. 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.

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.g. "water" (pronounced as ). Estuary English: A Controversial Issue? by JOANNA RYFA

Yod-coalescence , i.e., the use of the affricates and instead of the clusters /dj/ and /tj/ in words like "dune" and "tune".

Diphthong shifts, e.g., the diphthong in words like "I" becomes , the diphthong in words like "brown" becomes , and the diphthong in words like "face" becomes , , , or .

L-vocalisation , i.e., the use of where RP uses 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?"

But the following characteristics of Cockney pronunciation are generally ''not'' considered to be present in Estuary English Rosewarne, David (1984). ''Estuary English''. Times Educational Supplement, 19 (October 1984) Wells, John (1994). ''Transcribing Estuary English - a discussion document''. Speech Hearing and Language: UCL Work in Progress, volume 8, 1994, pages 259-267 Altendorf, Ulrike (1999). ''Estuary English: is English going Cockney?'' In: Moderna Språk, XCIII, 1, 1-11 :

Th-fronting , i.e., replacement of with (e.g. for ''think'')

H-dropping , i.e., Dropping in stressed words (e.g. for ''hat'')

Double Negation . However, Estuary English may use "never" in case where "not" would be the Standard. For example, "he did not" reference to a single occasion might become "he never did".

Replacement of an /r/ with a /w/ 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 Maidment, J. A. (1994) ''Estuary English: Hybrid or Hype?'' Paper presented at the 4th New Zealand Conference on Language & Society, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand, August 1994. Haenni, Rudi (1999). ''The case of Estuary English: supposed evidence and a perceptual approach''. University of Basel dissertation. , 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, Altendorf, Ulrike (1999). ''Estuary English: is English going Cockney?'' In: Moderna Språk, XCIII, 1, 1-11 e.g. those from Isle Of Thanet often refer to Thanet as "Plannit Fannit" (Planet Thanet).

USE OF ESTUARY ENGLISH

Estuary English is widely encountered throughout the south and south-east of England , particularly among the young. Many consider it to be a Working-class accent, though it is by no means limited to the working class. In the debate that surrounded a 1993 article about Estuary English, a London businessman claimed that Received Pronounciation was perceived as unfriendly, so Estuary English was now preferred for commercial purposes.David Crystal, "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language", p.327

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 ". For example, Tony Blair , the former British Prime Minister , has been heard to adopt the accent at times in TV interviews Diana, Princess Of Wales (born 1961) was sometimes said to use elements of Estuary English, though they were quite mild in her case. By contrast the Queen 's granddaughter Zara Phillips (born 1981) speaks with a pronounced Estuary English accent. As some Australian scientists have found out researching the Queen's anniversary speeches, even she has shifted her accent slightly towards what is called Estuary.
'' Queen's speech 'less posh' '' - BBC News
''The Queen's English of today: My 'usband and I ...'' - The Guardian

REFERENCES

	CATEGORIES ABOUT ESTUARY ENGLISH

	english language in england

	languages of the united kingdom

	london words

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Estuary English