Estuary English, or Popular London English, is the form of English as spoken in London and the South East of England and is currently gaining some ground as a new “standard” for England English, being used by many news reporters, politicians and prominent people. The accent is largely based on London Cockney English with the most “frowned upon” features taken out. As standard England English (RP) developed from a triangle between London, Oxford and Cambridge, many of the dialect words of this area were incorporated into the standard. This has the result that Estuary does not have many unique local dialect words, however the accent often differs from RP. Below are some of the main differences:
Glottalising
This refers to changing a t in syllable final position into a glottal stop. For example “get” > “ge’” (In Cockney this is extended to t between vowels [“be’er” instead of “better”])
L-vocalisation
This refers to the changing of l before a consonant, or l in phrase-final position to a sound similar to ‘w’ or ‘u’.; for example “milk” > “mi-wk,” “hell” > “he-w” but “hell and back” > “hell am back” (l pronounced due to the following a). L-vocalisation leads to lots of words collapsing to sound the same when not followed by a vowel. For example “fool,” “full,” and “fall” are all pronounced identically as “fu-w,” but before vowels they are pronounced as in RP; “fail” and “foul” are pronounced “fow” (to rhyme with “now”) when not followed by a vowel, but the same as RP with a vowel.
The “or” split
This refers to the sound “or” of RP as in “bought” and “door.” (Note, the r in this position is not pronounced in RP English so the sound is the same for both.) In Estuary this RP “or” has split depending on the position. If the base word has this sound and then a consonant then in Estuary it is pronounced “u-w.” If there is no consonant then it is pronounced ‘or’ as in RP. Thus “door“ is pronounced as in RP, whereas “corn” is pronounced “cu-wn.” This leads to interesting differences in pronunciation between “bored” and “board” (identical in RP). “Bored” is based on the word “bore,” so it is pronounced as in RP “bord;” however, “board” being followed by a consonant is pronounced “buwd” (which is identical with Estuary “bald”!).
Palatalisation
When a t is followed by a u (yu) or an r it has the pronunciation of “ch.” The combination “stu” and “str” are pronounced “shchu” and “shchr” respectively; for example “Tuesday” = “Choozdi,” “train” = “chrain,” “ stupid” = “shchupid,” “string” = “shchring.”
Linking letters
Estuary has many linking letters, which although quite common in England English, are less common in the other Englishes. Linking y : “me and you” = “meyan yu,” “high up” = “hiyupp,” “AAA” = “AyAyA.” Linking w : “you and me” = “yuwan me,” “do it again” = “dowi’ agen.” Linking r: “Canada is ...” = “Canadariz ...,” “drawing” = “drorin.”
I howp youv injoid this littuw look a’ Eshchry Ingglish.
Author: Gary Taylor, Berlin, Germany, 2002
Further information: http://www.lowlands-l.net (Click on “Resources” and on “Links” or “Offline Material”.)
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