Posted by Robert Hill on September 15, 1999 at 19:28:41 from 129.11.153.35 via proxy proxy2.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: What's Estuary English? Re: S & A audio version posted by Anne LeVeque on September 15, 1999 at 18:16:57:
"Estuary English" is a relatively new term (about 10 years old??).
The estuary in question is that of the Thames. The phrase refers to
the way in which pronunciations which a few decades ago would have been
regarded as Cockney (working class east or south London) have now, in
watered-down versions, spread geographically outwards and socially
upwards, especially among the younger generation. As someone said,
it's beginning to get noticeable in period dramas that younger actors
and actresses find it hard to keep up the posh accents - EE comes more
naturally to many of them.
The phonomenon has hitherto been largely confined to London and the
surrounding area (the "Home Counties") but that's where influential
people in Britain (e.g. people who work in the media) are mostly concentrated.
Linguistic researchers recently reported having found traces of EE
vowels as far away as Liverpool, despite that city's fierce sense of
independence and its strong well-established local ("Scouse") accent.
I'm sure others will correct any errors in this or expand it as
necessary, and I'll leave it to them to name names.