The dialect spoken by many
people from the South and South East of England, including parts of
London, although cockney and Received Pronounciation (the
Queen's English) are
far more common.
Received Pronounciation can be heard in the same areas as Estuary English, however RP tends to be spoken by the upper classes while Estuary English is spoken by the lower and working class.
Estuary English is also far more common in Younger
people, with
parents who have RP. So the decline in RP is likely to continue and be replaced with Estuary.
Many features of the Estuary accent include:
- The broad A. This includes pronouncing words such as 'fast > farst' and 'path > parth'
- Regular Glottal stops - This is not pronouncing the letter 'T' in most words. i.e
water is pronounced
war'er.
Th-Fronting - This is prouncing most words that start a 'Th' with an F. i.e 'Three > free', 'think >
fink' and 'north > norf'. If 'th' is in the middle of a word, it is usually replaced with a '
V'. i.e 'other > ovver' 'southern > sovvern'
L-vocalisation - This is not pronouncing the letter 'L' in certain words and tends to be ended with a 'w' sound instead. i.e 'fall > faw' and 'milk > miwk'.
- H-Dropping - not pronouncing the letter 'H' at the start of most words. i.e 'here > ere' and 'hate > ate'
- G's are also not pronounced at the end of words. '
swimming > swimmin'
Other things are included in the accent other than just the pronounciation. This includes double negatives and finishing a lot of sentances with questions even ifthey are not asking a question. i.e I didn't
mean to, did I? and 'we should shouldn't we?'
Received Pronounciation can be 'eard in the same areas as Estree
Inglish, owever RP tends te be spoken by the
upper clarses while Estuary
English is spoken by the lower and workin clars.