Estuary English (EE)

Till the last quarter of the 20^th century nobody in GB contested a statement that RP was the only standard accent. But in the early 1980-s, however, a new pronunciation variety in the South if England seemed to appear. It was named “Estuary English” (EE) – «английский в дельте Темзы» (because it comes from the area around the Thames estuary).[1] But it has also spread to other areas and is becoming the most influential accent all over Britain. There is even an opinion that it is going to take the place of RP as a standard accent. EE is widely spoken at school and used in radio and TV reporting in London, Canterbury, Windsor, Oxford and Cambridge. Even the young members of the British Royal family are more and more often heard speaking Estuary English.

The status of EE has not yet been defined. It stands somewhere between RP and Cockney[2]. According to J. Maidment, Professor of London University, the following correlation between RP, EE and Cockney may be established:

---------------- Cockney ------------- --- ------------------- RP ------------

colloquial formal colloquial formal

---------- EE -----------

The most striking features of EE are as follows (you can see that many of them are similar to changes occurring in advanced RP):

A. on the segmental level:

1) the extensive use of the glottal stop: e.g. seatbelt, network, statement;

2) /ł/ is realized in /w/ in rapid EE speech: e.g. Paul’s, pause, paws → /pɔ:z/;

3) /ı/ becomes longer in word final position: e.g. very funny /'veri 'fʌni/;

4) yod (/j/) is dropped before /u:/: e.g. assume /ə'su:m/, illuminate /ı'lu:mıneıt/;

5) /tj/, /dj/ → /t∫/, /dƷ/: e. g. It’s due on Tuesday /ıts 'dƷu: ɔn 't∫u:zdai/;

6) avoiding the syllabic consonants: e.g. button /'bʌtən/, middle /'mıdəl/;

7) /h/-elision: e.g. ‘and and ‘eart (hand and heart);

8) /t/ → /f/: e.g. I fink (I think)