Estuary English Definition

Estuary English & Mockney

Estuary English is a form of spoken English that has become widespread and popular in recent years in Britain, especially in London and wherever the so-called 'chattering classes' (people like journalists, who talk a lot) are found. It is basically fairly standard English but with a pronunciation that is quite influenced by the English of London, Cockney. Generally, the grammar is unchanged but features such as the 'glottal stop', where the letter T is not pronounced in the middle of words such as 'bottle' (pronounced 'bo'all') are used.

It is called Estuary English because many upwardly mobile professional people among whom it is fashionable live in the Docklands area of London by the river. It is also called Mockney because it is a fake or MOCK form of Cockney English, without all the colourful language play and complex use of slang that make Cockney English so fascinating.

To quote Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English)

"Estuary English is a name given to the form(s) of English widely spoken in South East England and the East of England; especially along the River Thames and its estuary"

This definition is one of the few generalizations everyone agrees with. Different descriptions give the variety different features, and some restrict themselves to listing features that they don't regard as characteristic of Estuary English (although they have been said to be elsewhere). One review, from UCL (https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/przed.pdf), refers to it as 'an allegedly new accent variety' (and it's not clear whether the writer means the allegation is about the newness or about the belief that it's a variety at all).

The expression derives from a TES article, published in October 1984 (https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/rosew.htm), in which the author, David Rosewarne writes

"'Estuary English' is a variety of modified regional speech. It is a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation. If one imagines a continuum with RP and London speech at either end, "Estuary English" speakers are to be found grouped in the middle ground."

The BBC's Voices survey, as reported in Talking for Britain (2004) says 'It all gets rather complex-sounding to describe, but if you're in any doubt, just think EastEnders' [a popular TV series - a 'soap opera' - set in east London]. The accents produced in this series (sometimes a caricature of Cockney) have had a widespread influence (especially on the young and the would-be young; some of features of Tony Blair's speech - Prime Minister until mid-2007, educated at Fettes and Oxford - are 'Estuarial') . It's a social as much as a regional phenomenon.