Estuary English

Estuary English is a special way of speaking English that developed around the River Thames and its area, including parts of London, mostly in the late 1900s. It's a mix of two very different accents: the posh, higher-class accent called Received Pronunciation and the local London accent called Cockney.

People who speak Estuary English sound like they’re in between these two. Some experts say it’s becoming a new standard way to speak in England. It’s called “intermediate,” meaning it’s not super posh but also not very strong local accent.

You can hear it in the voices of famous people from places like Essex, Kent, and Berkshire. It’s interesting because it shows how language can change and mix where people live and interact.

Name

Some people prefer different names for the way people speak in and around London. For example, one expert uses the term London Regional General British instead of the more common name "Estuary English".

Experts have used a few different names to describe accents that sound a bit more like Cockney (called Popular London) or ones that sound closer to the standard way of speaking (called London Regional Standard or South-Eastern Regional Standard).

Status as accent of English

The lines between RP (Received Pronunciation), Estuary English, and Cockney are not very clear. Some experts say Estuary English is not a special accent but sits in the middle of a range that has RP and London speech at the ends.

Peter Trudgill thinks the term “Estuary English” is not right because it makes it sound like a new kind of accent only found near the Thames estuary, which it isn’t. Instead, it talks about the accents of the lower middle class in the Home Counties, not the working class. Some people in public life now speak with a mix of RP and London features, like glottal stops, which used to get noticed or disapproved of. Experts say these features are spreading because they are neither completely standard nor very non-standard, but part of a range between the two. Interest in Estuary English has decreased and discussions have shifted to a newer accent called Multicultural London English.

Features

Published accounts of Estuary English describe it mainly in terms of differences from contemporary Received Pronunciation (RP) and from Cockney. Wells (1994) states that "Estuary English (EE) is like RP, but unlike Cockney, in being associated with standard grammar and usage". Differences are found at phonemic and allophonic levels.

Wells identifies a small number of key features that may distinguish EE from RP; these features may be summarized as follows:

• /l/-vocalization
• /t/-glottalization
• Diphthong shift
• Yod-coalescence

Other distinguishing features have been suggested by other studies:

• Th-fronting
• Other vowel differences

Wells suggests that EE differs from Cockney in a few key features:

• EE differs from Cockney in usually not being characterized by H-dropping before stressed vowels
• Th-fronting
• Cockney may have monophthongal realization of the MOUTH vowel.

Use

Estuary English is commonly heard in southeast England, especially among younger people. It is often thought of as a working-class accent, but it is also used by some from the lower middle classes. In 1993, a London businessman said that the traditional accent called Received Pronunciation sounded unfriendly, so many businesses started using Estuary English instead. Some people choose this accent to seem more like everyday folks, and this is sometimes called "Mockney". Many young people from middle-class families in the South-East of England are now moving away from the older, traditional accents.

19th-century Rural Estuary English

Main article: English language in Southern England § 19th-century Kent, Sussex, and Surrey English

In the 1800s, older country ways of speaking in places like Kent and the east of Essex held on longer than in other areas. These older styles of speaking had some similarities to, but also some differences from, the modern Estuary English we hear today. One special feature of these older styles was that people often pronounced their "r" sounds, a habit that has mostly disappeared in speaking today.