Estuary English is an intermediate accent between Cockney and Received Pronunciation, also widely spoken in and around London, as well as in wider South Eastern England.[7][8][9] In multicultural areas of London, the Cockney dialect is, to an extent, being replaced by Multicultural London English—a new form of speech with significant Cockney influence.
Words and phrases
Etymology of Cockney
The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in passus VI of William Langland's Piers Plowman, where it is used to mean "a small, misshapen egg", from Middle Englishcoken + ey ("a cock's egg").[10] Concurrently, the mythical land of luxury Cockaigne (attested from 1305) appeared under a variety of spellings, including Cockayne, Cocknay, and Cockney, and became humorously associated with the English capital London.[11][13]
The current meaning of Cockney comes from its use among rural Englishmen (attested in 1520) as a pejorative term for effeminate town-dwellers,[15][10] from an earlier general sense (encountered in "The Reeve's Tale" of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Talesc.1386) of a "cokenay" as "a child tenderly brought up" and, by extension, "an effeminate fellow" or "a milksop".[16] This may have developed from the sources above or separately, alongside such terms as "cock" and "cocker" which both have the sense of "to make a nestle-cock... or the darling of", "to indulge or pamper".[18][19] By 1600, this meaning of cockney was being particularly associated with the Bow Bells area.[4][20] In 1617, the travel writer Fynes Moryson stated in his Itinerary that "Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bells, are in reproach called Cockneys."[21] The same year, John Minsheu included the term in this newly restricted sense in his dictionary Ductor in Linguas.[25]
Other terms
Cockney sparrow: Refers to the archetype of a cheerful, talkative Cockney.
Cockney diaspora: The term Cockney diaspora refers to the migration of Cockney speakers to places outside London, especially new towns.[26] It also refers to the descendants of those people, in areas where there was enough migration for identification with London to persist in subsequent generations.
Mockney: Refers to a fake Cockney accent, though the term is sometimes also used as a self-deprecatory moniker by second, third, and subsequent generations of the Cockney diaspora.
Region
Initially, when London consisted of little more than the walledCity, the term applied to all Londoners, and this lingered into the 19th century.[11] As the city grew, the definitions shifted to alternatives based on dialect or more specific areas; the East End and the area within earshot of Bow Bells.
The East End of London and the vicinity of Bow bells are often used interchangeably, representing the identity of the East End. The region within the audible range of the bells varies depending on the direction of the wind. but there is a correlation between the two geographic definitions under the typical prevailing wind conditions. The term can apply to East Londoners who do not speak the dialect and those who do.[27]
The church of St Mary-le-Bow is one of the oldest, largest, and historically most important churches in the City of London. The definition based on being born within earshot of the bells,[28] cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, reflects the early definition of the term as relating to all of London.
The audible range of the Bells is dependent on geography and wind conditions. The east is mostly low lying, a factor which combines with the strength and regularity of the prevailing wind, blowing from west-south-west for nearly three-quarters of the year,[29] to carry the sound further to the east, and more often. A 2012 study[30] showed that in the 19th century, and under typical conditions, the sound of the bells would carry as far as Clapton, Bow and Stratford in the east but only as far as Southwark to the south and Holborn in the west. An earlier study[31] suggested the sound would have carried even further. The 2012 study showed that in the modern era, noise pollution means that the bells can only be heard as far as Shoreditch. According to legend, Dick Whittington heard the bells 4.5 miles away at Highgate Hill, in what is now north London. The studies mean that it is credible that Whittington might have heard them on one of the infrequent days that the wind blows from the south.
The church of St Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. Although the bells were destroyed again in 1941 in the Blitz, they had fallen silent on 13 June 1940 as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of World War II. Before they were replaced in 1961, there was a period when, by the "within earshot" definition, no "Bow Bell" Cockneys could be born.[32] The use of such a literal definition produces other problems since the area around the church is no longer residential, and the noise pollution means few are born within earshot.[33]
Cockney speakers have distinctive accents and dialects and occasionally use rhyming slang. The Survey of English Dialects took a recording from a long-time resident of Hackney in the 1950s, and the BBC made another recording in 1999 which showed how the accent had changed.[34][35] One of the characteristic pronunciations of Cockney is th-fronting.
The early development of Cockney vocabulary is obscure, but appears to have been heavily influenced by Essex and related eastern dialects,[36] while borrowings from Yiddish, including kosher (originally Hebrew, via Yiddish, meaning legitimate) and shtum (/ʃtʊm/ originally German, via Yiddish, meaning mute),[37] as well as Romani, for example wonga (meaning money, from the Romani "wanga" meaning coal),[38] and cushty (Kushty) (from the Romani kushtipen, meaning good) reflect the influence of those groups on the development of the speech.
John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1859, refers to "their use of a peculiar slang language" when describing the costermongers of London's East End.
Migration and evolution
A dialectological study of Leytonstone in 1964 found that the area's dialect was very similar to that recorded in Bethnal Green by Eva Sivertsen, but there were still some features that distinguished Leytonstone speech from Cockney.[39]
Linguistic research conducted in the early 2010s suggests that today, some aspects of the Cockney accent are declining in usage within multicultural areas, where some traditional features of Cockney have been displaced by Multicultural London English, a multiethnolect particularly common amongst young people from diverse backgrounds.[40] Nevertheless, the glottal stop, double negatives, and the vocalisation of the dark L (and other features of Cockney speech) are among the Cockney influences on Multicultural London English, and some rhyming slang terms are still in common usage.
An influential July 2010 report by Paul Kerswill, professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University, Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition, and diffusion of a new variety, predicted that the Cockney accent would disappear from London's streets within 30 years.[40] The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, said that the accent, which has been around for more than 500 years, is being replaced in London by a new hybrid language. "Cockney in the East End is now transforming itself into Multicultural London English, a new, melting-pot mixture of all those people living here who learned English as a second language", Kerswill said.[40]
A series of new and expanded towns have often had a strong influence on local speech. Many areas beyond the capital have become Cockney-speaking to a greater or lesser degree, including the new towns of Hemel Hempstead, Basildon, and Harlow, and expanded towns such as Grays, Chelmsford and Southend. However, this is, except where least mixed, difficult to discern because of common features: linguistic historian and researcher of early dialects Alexander John Ellis in 1890 stated that Cockney developed owing to the influence of Essex dialect on London speech.[36]
Writing in 1981, the dialectologist Peter Wright identified the building of the Becontree estate in Dagenham as influential in the spread of the Cockney dialect. This vast estate was built by the Corporation of London to house poor East Enders in a previously rural area of Essex. The residents typically kept their Cockney dialect rather than adopt an Essex dialect.[41] Wright also reports that the Cockney dialect spread along the main railway routes to towns in the surrounding counties as early as 1923, spreading further after World War II when many refugees left London owing to the bombing, and continuing to speak Cockney in their new homes.[42]
A more distant example where the accent stands out is Thetford in Norfolk, which tripled in size from 1957 in a deliberate attempt to attract Londoners by providing social housing funded by the London County Council.[43]
Typical features
Closing diphthongs of Cockney on a vowel chart (from Mott (2012:77)). This chart gives only a general idea of the closing diphthongs of Cockney, as they are much more variable than the realizations shown on the chart. Two closing diphthongs are missing, namely /ɪi,ʊʉ/.Centering diphthongs of Cockney on a vowel chart (from Mott (2012:77))
As with many accents of the United Kingdom, Cockney is non-rhotic. A final -er is pronounced [ə] or lowered [ɐ] in broad Cockney. As with all or nearly all non-rhotic accents, the paired lexical sets COMMA and LETTER, PALM/BATH and START, THOUGHT and NORTH/FORCE, are merged. Thus, the last syllable of words such as cheetah can be pronounced [ɐ] as well in broad Cockney.[44][45][46]
The accent features T-glottalisation, with use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions,[48][49] including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently for /k/ and /p/, and occasionally for mid-word consonants. For example, Richard Whiteing spelled "Hyde Park" as Hy' Par'. Like and light can be homophones. "Clapham" can be said as Cla'am (i.e., [ˈkl̥ɛʔm̩]).[47]/t/ may also be flapped intervocalically, e.g. utter[ˈaɾə]. London /p,t,k/ are often aspirated in intervocalic and final environments, e.g., upper[ˈapʰə], utter[ˈatʰə], rocker[ˈɹɒkʰə], up[ˈaʔpʰ], out[ˈæə̯ʔtʰ], rock[ˈɹɒʔkʰ], where RP is traditionally described as having the unaspirated variants. Also, in broad Cockney at least, the degree of aspiration is typically greater than in RP, and may often also involve some degree of affrication [pᶲʰ,tˢʰ,kˣʰ]. Affricatives may be encountered in initial, intervocalic, and final position.[50][51] This feature results in Cockney being often mentioned in textbooks about Semitic languages while explaining how to pronounce the glottal stop.
/θ/ can become [f] in any environment. [fɪn] "thin", [mɛfs] "maths".
/ð/ can become [v] in any environment except word-initially when it can be [ð, ð̞, d, l, ʔ,∅]. [dæɪ] "they", [ˈbɒvə] "bother".[53][54]
Yod-coalescence, in words such as tune[tʃʰʉːn] or reduce[ɹɪˈdʒʉːs] (compare traditional RP [ˈtjuːn,ɹɪˈdjuːs]).[55]
The alveolar stops/t/, /d/ are often omitted in informal Cockney, in non-prevocalic environments, including some that cannot be omitted in Received Pronunciation. Examples include [ˈdæzɡənə]Dad's gonna and [ˈtɜːnˈlef]turn left.[56]
H-dropping. Sivertsen considers that [h] is to some extent a stylistic marker of emphasis in Cockney.[57][58]
/aɪ/ → [ɑɪ] or even [ɒɪ] in "vigorous, dialectal" Cockney. The second element may be reduced or absent (with compensatory lengthening of the first element), so that there are variants such as [ɑ̟ə~ɑ̟ː]. This means that pairs such as laugh-life, Barton-biting may become homophones: [lɑːf], [bɑːʔn̩]. But this neutralisation is an optional, recoverable one:[63][bɑɪʔ] "bite"
/uː/ → [əʉ] or a monophthongal [ʉː], perhaps with little lip rounding, [ɨː] or [ʊː]:[60][64][bʉːʔ] "boot"
/əʊ/ → this diphthong typically starts in the area of the London /ʌ/, [æ̈~ɐ]. The endpoint may be [ʊ], but more commonly, it is rather opener and completely unrounded, i.e. [ɤ̈] or [ɤ̝̈]. Thus, the most common variants are [æ̈ɤ̈,æ̈ɤ̝̈,ɐɤ̈] and [ɐɤ̝̈], with [æ̈ʊ] and [ɐʊ] also being possible. The broadest Cockney variant approaches [aʊ]. There's also a variant that is used only by women, namely [ɐø~œ̈ø]. In addition, there are two monophthongal pronunciations, [ʌ̈ː] as in 'no, nah' and [œ̈], which is used in non-prominent variants.[65][kʰɐɤ̈ʔ] "coat"
/ɪə/ and /eə/ have somewhat tenser onsets than in RP: [iə], [ɛ̝ə][46][66]
/ʊə/, according to Wells (1982), is being increasingly merged with /ɔː/ ~ /ɔə/.[46]
/ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/, /ɔə/ and /aʊ/ can be monophthongized to [ɪː], [ɛː], [ʊː] (if it doesn't merge with /ɔː/ ~ /ɔə/), [ɔː] and [æː] ~ [aː].[67]Wells (1982) states that "no rigid rules can be given for the distribution of monophthongal and diphthongal variants, though the tendency seems to be for the monophthongal variants to be commonest within the utterance, but the diphthongal realizations in utterance-final position, or where the syllable in question is otherwise prominent."[68]
Disyllabic [ɪi.ə,ɛi.ə,ɔu.ə,æi.ə] realizations of /iə,eə,ɔə,æʊ/ are also possible, and at least [ɛi.ə,ɔu.ə,æi.ə] are regarded as very strongly Cockney.[69] Among these, the triphthongal realization of /ɔə/ occurs most commonly.[70] There is not a complete agreement about the distribution of these; according to Wells (1982), they "occur in sentence-final position",[61] whereas according to Mott (2012), these are "most common in final position".[70]
Other vowel differences include
/æ/ may be [ɛ] or [ɛɪ], with the latter occurring before voiced consonants, particularly before /d/:[46][71][bɛk] "back", [bɛːɪd] "bad"
/ɛ/ may be [eə], [eɪ], or [ɛɪ] before certain voiced consonants, particularly before /d/:[46][72][73][74][beɪd] "bed"
/ɒ/ may be a somewhat less open [ɔ]:[46][kʰɔʔ] "cot"
/ɑː/ has a fully back variant, qualitatively equivalent to cardinal 5, which Beaken (1971) claims characterizes "vigorous, informal" Cockney.[46]
/ɜː/ is on occasion somewhat fronted and lightly rounded, giving Cockney variants such as [ɜ̟ː], [œ̈ː].[46]
/ʌ/ → [ɐ̟] or a quality like that of cardinal 4, [a]:[46][71][dʒamʔˈtˢapʰ] "jumped up"
/ɔː/ → [oː] or a closing diphthong of the type [oʊ~ɔo] when in non-final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney:[75][76][soʊs] "sauce"-"source", [loʊd] "laud"-"lord", [ˈwoʊʔə] "water."
/ɔː/ → [ɔː] or a centering diphthong/triphthong of the type [ɔə~ɔuə] when in final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney; thus [sɔə] "saw"-"sore"-"soar", [lɔə] "law"-"lore", [wɔə] "war"-"wore". The diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause can contrast with bored[bɔəd] and paws[pʰɔəz].[76]/ɔə/ has a somewhat tenser onset than the cardinal /ɔ/, that is [ɔ̝ə].[66]
/əʊ/ becomes something around [ɒʊ~ɔo] or even [aɤ] in broad Cockney before dark l. These variants are retained when the addition of a suffix turns the dark l clear. Thus a phonemic split has occurred in London English, exemplified by the minimal pair wholly[ˈhɒʊli] vs. holy[ˈhɐɤ̈li]. The development of L-vocalisation (see next section) leads to further pairs such as sole-soul[sɒʊ] vs. so-sew[sɐɤ̈], bowl[bɒʊ] vs. Bow[bɐɤ̈], shoulder[ˈʃɒʊdə] vs. odour[ˈɐɤ̈də], while associated vowel neutralisations may make doll a homophone of dole, compare dough[dɐɤ̈]. All this reinforces the phonemic nature of the opposition and increases its functional load. It is now well-established in all kinds of London-flavoured accents, from broad Cockney to near-RP.[77]
/ʊ/ in some words (particularly good)[78] is central [ʊ̈].[78] In other cases, it is near-close near-back [ʊ], as in traditional RP.[78]
The dialect uses the vocalisation of dark L, hence [ˈmɪowoː] for Millwall. The actual realization of a vocalized /l/ is influenced by surrounding vowels, and it may be realized as [u], [ʊ], [o] or [ɤ]. It is also transcribed as a semivowel[w] by some linguists, e.g., Coggle and Rosewarne.[79] However, according to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), the vocalized dark l is sometimes an unoccluded lateral approximant, which differs from the RP [ɫ] only by the lack of the alveolar contact.[80] Relatedly, there are many possible vowel neutralisations and absorptions in the context of a following dark L ([ɫ]) or its vocalized version; these include:[81]
In broad Cockney, and to some extent in general popular London speech, a vocalized /l/ is entirely absorbed by a preceding /ɔː/: e.g., salt and sort become homophones (although the contemporary pronunciation of salt/sɒlt/[82] would prevent this from happening), and likewise fault-fought-fort, pause-Paul's, Morden-Malden, water-Walter. Sometimes such pairs are kept apart, in a more deliberate speech at least, by a kind of length difference: [ˈmɔʊdn̩]Morden vs. [ˈmɔʊːdn̩]Malden.
A preceding /ə/ is also fully absorbed into vocalised /l/. The reflexes of earlier /əl/ and earlier /ɔː(l)/ are thus phonetically similar or identical; speakers are usually ready to treat them as the same phoneme. Thus awful can best be regarded as containing two occurrences of the same vowel, /ˈɔːfɔː/. The difference between musical and music-hall, in an H-dropping broad Cockney, is thus nothing more than a matter of stress and perhaps syllable boundaries.
With the remaining vowels, a vocalized /l/ is not absorbed but remains phonetically present as a back vocoid in such a way that /Vl/ and /V/ are kept distinct.
The clearest and best-established neutralisations are those of /ɪ~iː~ɪə/ and /ʊ~uː~ʊə/. Thus rill, reel and real fall together in Cockney as [ɹɪɤ]; while full and fool are [foʊ~fʊu] and may rhyme with cruel[ˈkʰɹʊu]. Before clear (i.e., prevocalic) /l/ the neutralisations do not usually apply, thus [ˈsɪli]silly but [ˈsɪilɪn]ceiling-sealing, [ˈfʊli]fully but [ˈfʊulɪn]fooling.
In some broader types of Cockney, the neutralisation of /ʊ~uː~ʊə/ before non-prevocalic /l/ may also involve /ɔː/, so that fall becomes homophonous with full and fool[fɔo].
The other pre-/l/ neutralisation which all investigators agree on is that of /æ~eɪ~aʊ/. Thus, Sal and sale can be merged as [sæɤ], fail and fowl as [fæɤ], and Val, vale-veil and vowel as [væɤ]. The typical pronunciation of railway is [ˈɹæʊwæɪ].
According to Siversten, /ɑː/ and /aɪ/ can also join in this neutralisation. They may, on the one hand, neutralize concerning one another so that snarl and smile rhyme, both ending [-ɑɤ], and Child's Hill is in danger of being mistaken for Charles Hill; or they may go further into a fivefold neutralization with the one just mentioned, so that pal, pale, foul, snarl and pile all end in [-æɤ]. But these developments are restricted to broad Cockney, not being found in London speech in general.
A neutralization discussed by Beaken (1971) and Bowyer (1973), but ignored by Siversten (1960), is that of /ɒ~əʊ~ʌ/. It leads to the possibility of doll, dole and dull becoming homophonous as [dɒʊ] or [da̠ɤ]. Wells' impression is that the doll-dole neutralization is rather widespread in London, but that involving dull less so.
One further possible neutralization in the environment of a following non-prevocalic /l/ is that of /ɛ/ and /ɜː/, so that well and whirl become homophonous as [wɛʊ].
Cockney has been occasionally described as replacing /ɹ/ with /w/. For example, thwee (or fwee) instead of three, fwasty instead of frosty. Peter Wright, a Survey of English Dialects fieldworker, concluded that this was not a universal feature of Cockneys but that it was more common to hear this in the London area than elsewhere in Britain.[83] This description may also be a result of mishearing the labiodental R as /w/, when it is still a distinct phoneme in Cockney.
An unstressed final -ow may be pronounced [ə]. In broad Cockney, this can be lowered to [ɐ].[45][46] This is common to most traditional, Southern English dialects except for those in the West Country.[84]
Regarding grammar, Cockney uses me instead of my, for example, "At's me book you got 'ere". (where 'ere' means 'there'). It cannot be used when "my" is emphasized; e.g., "At's my book you got 'ere." It also uses the term ain't, as well as double negatives, for example, "I didn't see nuffink".[85]
By the 1980s and 1990s, most of the features mentioned above had partly spread into more general south-eastern speech, giving the accent called Estuary English; an Estuary speaker will use some but not all of the Cockney sounds.[86][87][88]
Perception
The Cockney accent has long been regarded as an indicator of low status. For example, in 1909 the Conference on the Teaching of English in London Elementary Schools issued by the London County Council, stating that "the Cockney mode of speech, with its unpleasant twang, is a modern corruption without legitimate credentials, and is unworthy of being the speech of any person in the capital city of the Empire".[89] Others defended the language variety: "The London dialect is really, especially on the South side of the Thames, a perfectly legitimate and responsible child of the old Kentish tongue [...] the dialect of London North of the Thames has been shown to be one of the many varieties of the Midland or Mercian dialect, flavoured by the East Anglian variety of the same speech".[89] Since then, the Cockney accent has been more accepted as an alternative form of the English language rather than a lesser one, though the low status mark remains. In the 1950s, the only accent to be heard on the BBC (except in entertainment programs such as The Sooty Show) was the RP of Standard English, whereas nowadays many different accents, including Cockney or accents heavily influenced by it, can be heard on the BBC.[90] In a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Coolbrands in the autumn of 2008, Cockney was voted equal fourth coolest accent in Britain with 7% of the votes, while The Queen's English was considered the coolest, with 20% of the votes.[91]Brummie was voted least popular, receiving just 2%. The Cockney accent often featured in films produced by Ealing Studios and was frequently portrayed as the typical British accent of the lower classes in movies by Walt Disney, though this was only so in London.
Spread
Studies have indicated that the heavy use of South East England accents on television and radio may have caused the spread of Cockney English since the 1960s.[92][93][94][95] Cockney is more and more influential and some claim that in the future many features of the accent may become standard.[96]
Scotland
Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas such as Glasgow have begun to use certain aspects of Cockney and other Anglicisms in their speech.[97] infiltrating the traditional Glasgow patter.[98] For example, TH-fronting is commonly found, and typical Scottish features such as the postvocalic /r/ are reduced.[99] Research suggests the use of English speech characteristics is likely to be a result of the influence of London and South East England accents featuring heavily on television, such as the popular BBC One soap opera EastEnders.[92][93][94][95] However, such claims have been criticized.[100]
England
Certain features of Cockney – Th-fronting, L-vocalisation, T-glottalisation, and the fronting of the GOAT and GOOSE vowels – have spread across the south-east of England and, to a lesser extent, to other areas of Britain.[101] However, Clive Upton has noted that these features have occurred independently in some other dialects, such as TH-fronting in Yorkshire and L-vocalisation in parts of Scotland.[102]
The term Estuary English has been used to describe London pronunciations slightly closer to RP than Cockney. The variety first came to public prominence in an article by David Rosewarne in the Times Educational Supplement in October 1984.[103] Rosewarne argued that it may eventually replace Received Pronunciation in the south-east. The phonetician John C. Wells collected media references to Estuary English on a website. Writing in April 2013, Wells argued that research by Joanna Przedlacka "demolished the claim that EE was a single entity sweeping the southeast. Rather, we have various sound changes emanating from working-class London speech, each spreading independently".[104]
Pearly tradition
The Pearly Kings and Queens are famous as an East End institution, but that perception is not wholly correct as they are found in other places across London, including Peckham and Penge in south London.[citation needed]
A costume associated with Cockneys is that of the pearly King or Queen, worn by London costermongers who sew thousands of pearl buttons onto their clothing in elaborate and creative patterns.
Claude Rains, the actor born in Camberwell in 1889, became famous after abandoning his heavy Cockney accent and developing a unique Mid-Atlantic accent described as "half American, half English and a little Cockney thrown in"
British English is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Ulster English. Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geographically neutral, how many speakers there are, whether sub-varieties exist, how appropriate a choice it is as a standard, and how the accent has changed over time. The name itself is controversial. RP is an accent, so the study of RP is concerned only with matters of pronunciation, while other areas relevant to the study of language standards, such as vocabulary, grammar, and style, are not considered.
Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. The United Kingdom has a wide variety of accents, and no single "British accent" exists. This article provides an overview of the numerous identifiable variations in pronunciation. Such distinctions usually derive from the phonetic inventory of local dialects, as well as from broader differences in the Standard English of different primary-speaking populations.
Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England". He views Estuary English as an emerging standard accent of England, while also acknowledging that it is a social construct rather than a technically well-defined linguistic phenomenon. He describes it as "intermediate" between the 20th-century higher-class non-regional standard accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), and the 20th-century lower-class local London accent, Cockney. There is much debate among linguists as to where Cockney and RP end and where Estuary English begins, or whether Estuary English is even a single cohesive accent.
The Glasgow dialect, also called Glaswegian, varies from Scottish English at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum to the local dialect of West Central Scots at the other. Therefore, the speech of many Glaswegians can draw on a "continuum between fully localised and fully standardised". Additionally, the Glasgow dialect has Highland English and Hiberno-English influences owing to the speech of Highlanders and Irish people who migrated in large numbers to the Glasgow area in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While being named for Glasgow, the accent is typical for natives across the full Greater Glasgow area and associated counties such as Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire and parts of Ayrshire, which formerly came under the single authority of Strathclyde. It is most common in working class people, which can lead to stigma from members of other classes or those outside Glasgow.
The Brummie dialect, or more formally the Birmingham dialect, is spoken by many people in Birmingham, England, and some of its surrounding area. "Brummie" is also a demonym for people from Birmingham. It is often erroneously used in referring to all accents of the West Midlands, as it is markedly distinct from the traditional accent of the adjacent Black Country, but modern-day population mobility has tended to blur the distinction. Population mobility has meant that to a degree, the Brummie accent extends into some parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, but much of the accent within the borough might be considered to be closer to contemporary Received Pronunciation (RP).
Scouse, more formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English, is an accent and dialect of English associated with the city of Liverpool and the surrounding Liverpool City Region. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive as it was influenced heavily by Irish and Welsh immigrants who arrived via the Liverpool docks, as well as Scandinavian sailors who also used the docks, and thus has very little in common with the accents found throughout the rest of England. People from Liverpool are known as Liverpudlians, but are usually called Scousers; the name comes from scouse, a stew originating from Scandinavian lobscouse eaten by sailors and locals.
West Country English is a group of English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of the West Country, an area found in the southwest of England.
Yorkshire dialect is a dialect of English, or a geographic grouping of several dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The varieties have roots in Old English and are influenced to a greater extent by Old Norse than Standard English is. Yorkshire experienced drastic dialect levelling in the 20th century, eroding many traditional features, though variation and even innovations persist, at both the regional and sub-regional levels. Organisations such as the Yorkshire Dialect Society and the East Riding Dialect Society exist to promote the survival of the more traditional features.
A Baltimore accent, also known as Baltimorese, commonly refers to an accent related to Philadelphia English that originates among blue-collar residents of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It extends into the Baltimore metropolitan area and northeastern Maryland.
East Anglian English is a dialect of English spoken in East Anglia, primarily in or before the mid-20th century. East Anglian English has had a very considerable input into modern Estuary English. However, it has received little attention from the media and is not easily recognised by people from other parts of the United Kingdom. East Anglia is not easily defined and its boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon.
Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an even larger dialect area of New England, for example, including the eastern halves of Vermont and Connecticut for those born as late as the early twentieth century. Studies vary as to whether the unique dialect of Rhode Island technically falls within the Eastern New England dialect region.
The International Phonetic Alphabet charts for English dialects show the most common applications of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent English language pronunciations.
English in Southern England is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England.
In the history of English phonology, there have been many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before, especially in cases where the is at the end of a syllable.
North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken North American English —what are commonly known simply as "regional accents". Though studies of regional dialects can be based on multiple characteristics, often including characteristics that are phonemic, phonetic, lexical (vocabulary-based), and syntactic (grammar-based), this article focuses only on the former two items. North American English includes American English, which has several highly developed and distinct regional varieties, along with the closely related Canadian English, which is more homogeneous geographically. American English and Canadian English have more in common with each other than with varieties of English outside North America.
High Tider, Hoi Toider, or High Tide English is an American English dialect, or family of dialects, spoken in very limited communities of the South Atlantic United States, particularly several small islands and coastal townships. The exact areas include the rural "Down East" region of North Carolina, which encompasses the Outer Banks and Pamlico Sound—specifically Atlantic, Davis, Sea Level, and Harkers Island in eastern Carteret County, the village of Wanchese, and also Ocracoke—plus the Chesapeake Bay, such as Smith Island in Maryland, as well as Guinea Neck and Tangier Island in Virginia. High Tider has been observed as far west as Bertie County, North Carolina; the term is also a local nickname for any native resident of these regions.
Multicultural London English is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London.
Th-fronting is the pronunciation of the English "th" as "f" or "v". When th-fronting is applied, becomes or and becomes or. Unlike the fronting of to, the fronting of to usually does not occur word-initially. For example, while further is pronounced as fervour, that is rarely pronounced as *vat, although this was found in the speech of South-East London in a survey completed 1990–1994). Th-fronting is a prominent feature of several dialects of English, notably Cockney, Essex dialect, Estuary English, some West Country and Yorkshire dialects, African American Vernacular English, and Liberian English, as well as in many non-native English speakers.
The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the English language spoken and written in England include English English and Anglo-English.
1 2 Hotten, John Camden (1859). "Cockney". A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words. p.22. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2020.Cockney: a native of London. An ancient nickname implying effeminacy, used by the oldest English writers, and derived from the imaginary fool's paradise, or lubber-land, Cockaygne.
↑ Note, however, that the earliest attestation of this particular usage provided by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1824 and consists of a tongue-in-cheek allusion to an existing notion of "Cockneydom".[12]
↑ "This cokneys and tytyllynges... [delicati pueri] may abide no sorrow when they come to age... In these great cytees as London, York, Perusy, and such... the children be so nicely and wantonly brought up... that commonly they can little good.[14]
↑ Cumberledge, Geoffrey. F. N. Robinson (ed.). The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford University Press. p.70 & 1063.
↑ Locke, John (1695). Some thoughts concerning education (Thirded.). p.7.
↑ "...I shall explain myself more particularly; only laying down this as a general and certain observation for the women to consider, viz. that most children's constitutions are spoiled, or at least harmed, by cockering and tenderness."[17]
↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "cocker, v.1" & "cock, v.6". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1891
↑ Rowlands, Samuel. The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine. 1600.
↑ "Bow Bells". London.lovesguide.com. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
↑ "A Cockney or a Cocksie, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London". Note, however, that his proffered etymology— from either "cock" and "neigh" or from the Latinincoctus— were both erroneous.[22] The humorous folk etymology which grew up around the derivation from "cock" and "neigh" was preserved by Francis Grose's 1785 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: "A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! How that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called Neighing; the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgotten what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the Cock Neighs?"[23][24]
1 2 "5"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 February 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
↑ "BBC English". BBC English. Archived from the original on 17 January 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
↑ Irvine, Chris (September 2008). "RP still most popular accent". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 17 June 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
↑ Upton, Clive (2012). "Modern Regional English in the British Isles". In Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.). The Oxford History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.395.
↑ Hildebrandt, Melinda (16 May 2016). "Bob Hoskins". In McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (eds.). Encyclopedia of British film. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Cruttenden, A. (2001). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (6thed.). London: Arnold.
Ellis, Alexander J. (1890). English dialects: Their Sounds and Homes.
Hughes, Arthur; Trudgill, Peter (1979). English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English. Baltimore: University Park Press.
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