Estuary English
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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. 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.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.[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.[2][3]
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[edit] Features
Estuary English is characterized by the following features:
- Non-rhoticity.
- Use of intrusive R.
- A broad A (ɑː) 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.
- T-glottalization, i.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.g., water (pronounced as [woʊʔə]). Females show much higher glottaling scores than males.[4]
- Yod-coalescence, i.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. 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.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.e., replacement of [θ, ð] with [f, v] (e.g. [fɪŋk] for think)
- H-dropping, i.e., Dropping [h] in stressed words (e.g. [æʔ] for hat)
- Double negation. 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).
[edit] 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 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". 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]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Rosewarne, David (1984). Estuary English. Times Educational Supplement, 19 (October 1984)
- ^ A handout by John C. Wells, 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
- ^ Estuary English: A Controversial Issue? by JOANNA RYFA
- ^ Wells, John (1994). Transcribing Estuary English - a discussion document. Speech Hearing and Language: UCL Work in Progress, volume 8, 1994, pages 259-267
- ^ a b Altendorf, Ulrike (1999). Estuary English: is English going Cockney? In: Moderna Språk, XCIII, 1, 1-11
- ^ 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.
- ^ David Crystal, "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language", p.327
- ^ Queen's speech 'less posh' - BBC News
- ^ The Queen's English of today: My 'usband and I ... - The Guardian
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Przedlacka, Joanna (2001), "Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings", Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 36: 35-50
[edit] External links
- Sounds Familiar? — Listen to regional dialects of the UK.
- University College London: Estuary English
