Background of Estuary English (EE):"Estuary English" is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist, David Rosewarne. Defined as a "variety of modified regional speech" it becomes "a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation" (Rosewarne (1994). The Sunday Times, one of Britain’s most famous newspapers, has described it as a dialect existing between "Cockney and the Queen" and the Tory (Conservative) Minister of Education condemned it as a "bastardized version of Cockney dialect.
Wells, (1998) however, disagrees with this latter characterization and instead views EE as Cockney’s "educated counterpart." Coggle, (1994) sees EE existing as a bridge between RP and Cockney and thus serves as a bridge between the "various classes in SE England."
The term "Estuary" reflects the starting point for this dialect as being the region along London’s River Thames and its estuaries. Rosewarne’s initial studies were prompted by the lack of discussion surrounding accents that existed between RP and the localizable English forms. He saw what he refers to as a "particularly important gap in the descriptions of accents varieties in London and the South East of England."
Existing descriptions resembled diagram 1 above and diagram 2 represents the language continuum with the inclusion of Estuary English.
As might be expected with language change of any kind, there is much discussion regarding Estuary English, its phonetic components and its sociolinguistic consequences. An Estuary English web site regularly maintained by J.C. Wells, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London provides evidence of this discussion in the form of numerous web links to "scholarly articles, papers, lectures, web sites and "light journalism."
Geography of Estuary English (EE):From a geographical point of view, Rosewarne describes EE as having first been spoken "by the banks of the Thames and its estuary." In the decade or so since his initial studies on Estuary English were published, usage has spread from London and South East England north to Norwich and westwards to Cornwall.
Sociolinguistic issues of Estuary English (EE):A reason posited for the growth of EE, especially among young people, is that it is said to "obscure social origins and is very often adopted as a neutral accent." (Kohlmyer, 1996) Those who have come from a traditional RP background, adopt it because it increases "street credibility," and those who have local accents adopt it because it sounds more "sophisticated." Rosewarne thus sees the acquisition of Estuary English as part of the process of accommodation and a shift to the "middle ground" so that the RP accent is accommodated "downwards" and the local accent is accommodated "upward", resulting in accent convergence. The sociolinguistic consequences of this are that for over a decade, it has been common for the young people in the south eastern segment of England to speak differently from their older family members.
This somewhat "new" accent has also been heard on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), by members in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament as well as by business men in the "City" which is the heart of the business district of the city of London.
Rosewarne, (1994) sees Estuary English not only as a "bridge between various classes" as Paul Coggle, (1994) states, but as "a sign that class barriers are coming down." Coggle, (2000) also notes however, that currently in England, there are people who speak with an EE accent in positions of power who would never have managed to achieve their positions previously with the kinds of accents they have. He also believes that "Tony Blair is not averse to employing glottal stops when he thinks the company he is in calls for it" (Coggle, 2000).
Features of Estuary English (EE):Variations do exist within Estuary English and its speakers exhibit a mixture of "London" and General RP forms of phonemes (Rosewarne, 1994). Rosewarne does suggest a number of phonetic/phonological features that differentiate Estuary English from both RP on the one end of the spectrum and Cockney on the other.
Examples:
Use of /w/ where RP uses /l/ in the final positions or in a final consonant cluster. An Estuary English speaker may use an articulation like a /w/ instead of the /l/ as many as ten times in the following utterance. "A real salesman will always feel a fool if he fails to sell or his deal falls through."
Rosewarne, (1994) cites an aspect of Estuary English that he believes has not received much attention since he first reported it in 1984. The realization of /r/ is different in EE versus in RP and in Cockney. In Estuary English realization of /r/ the "tip of the tongue is lowered and the central part raised to a position close to, but not touching, the soft palette." He describes it as sounding similar to a general American /r/ but without the retroflection. He provides examples of two British comedians, Tony Slattery and Paul Merton as exhibiting this pattern.
The intonation in Estuary English is characterized by "frequent prominence being given to prepositions and auxiliary verbs which are not normally stressed in General R.P.
Example: "Let us get TO the point."
(Rosewarne 1994) cites an example of an interview where this change in intonation caused communication problems. A person speaking Estuary English was being interviewed on London Broadcasting Corporation and stated that "Totters have been in operation FOR years." It was clear, given the response of the interviewer, that four, rather than the intended for, had been heard.
There also appears to be a narrower pitch of intonation patterns in Estuary English than in RP. This is especially true where rises do not reach as high a pitch as they would in RP, Rosewarne sees the overall effect as being interpreted as one of "deliberateness" and possibly an "apparent lack of enthusiasm." (Rosewarne 1994)
(Rosewarne 1994) sees certain lexical changes within EE pronunciation. Cheers is often used in place of thank you, but it’s also possible for it to mean good-bye. The word basically is used frequently in conversation. An increased use of Americanisms can also be seen in EE and evidenced by such examples: There you go being used in place of the more standard Here you are and There is acts as an invariable form of usage in both singular and plural contexts. In addition, sorry is often replaced with excuse me and engaged in the context of the telephone, has been replaced by the word busy.
Altendorf (1999) cites the major difference between EE and Cockney as being grammatical correctness. Cockney speakers use more non-standard grammar than do speakers of EE.
Examples:
EE - you were
Cockney - you was
© 2001 The Language Samples Project