1. 1 Estuary English: A new standard accent? Changes in Received Pronunciation: conservative RP to General RP Suggestions that RP is changing again to include some features of the South-East “new” accent referred to as Estuary English Remember that standard accents tend to become regionless: the name “Estuary” suggests a region, but this accent is reported as spreading

2. 2 Peter Trudgill: “The label actually refers to the lower middle-class accents of the Home Counties which surround London: Essex and Kent, which do border on the Thames Estuary, but also parts or all of Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, which do not.” Changing Times, Changing Language

3. 3 Features of Estuary Some Cockney features but not all Continuum with RP at the one end and Cockney at the other - can you call it an accent? Estuary English on Urban Voices CD Popular media often doesn’t make distinction between Estuary and Cockney Purist reactions: “bastardised Cockney”

4. 4 Reasons for the spread of Estuary English Upper middle classes “talking down” Influential: heard in House of Commons, business, media, advertising (Kerswill) Channel 4 business news: glottal stops in get, market but not in sentiments, /l/ vocalisation in impossible, no TH fronting in months Tony Blair marker of identity for the young; children of the upwardly mobile are the most linguistically influential group Paul Coggle

5. 5 Influence of the media Paul Kerswill: speakers have been shifting between RP and Cockney for some time – EE is not a new phenomenon. What’s new is that it’s more visible in the media. metropolitan bias in the media Jane Stuart-Smith (Glasgow)

6. 6 but also lower middle classes “talking up” - David Crystal - Londoners moving into the suburbs and coming into contact with RP dialect levelling in the SE already - less people in rural employment mobility around the SE + increase in commuting even further  dialect contact

7. 7 new towns like Milton Keynes affected by dialect levelling in SE and Estuary English MK, Urban voices CD MK: glottal stops, th-fronting RP vowel in “mouth” /  / not London /  :  / or regional /  / fronting of “coke” (RP “cake”) goat (RP “gate”) (all SE speech) fronting of /u:/ in spoon further afield - Reading, Hull? EE features in Liverpool, Glasgow?!

8. 8 Is the EE phenomenon reflective of a classless society? - still many complaints (Kerswill) Thatcher’s meritocracy against old establishment but also against representatives of unions the upwardly mobile change their accent