In the modern world, the question “do you speak English?” is no more a wonder, the whole world tries to learn English, tries to speak English. Even the Englishmen learn how to speak English. However, they learn how to speak properly, how to speak fashionably. Preferably, they learn Estuary English.

Actually, what is Estuary English? Does it really exist? The “founder” of this term, David Rosewarne defines Estuary English as “a variety of modified regional speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation.” Because it was observed in the South-East of England, this kind of English pronunciation was probably called after the Thames estuary. Actually, it is not excluded, that this dialect had already existed long before Rosewarne had defined it.

The scholars believe that Estuary English originated from social “middle ground”, and was for the higher class a tool to speak less “posh” and for the lower class, conversely, to speak more “posh”. Therefore, Estuary English became an inter-social language, which would be spoken by the majority in the South-East of England. Then, in London, Estuary English was mixed up with the Cockney, which was primarily spoken by the working class. Therefore, Received Pronunciation (RP) would be no more the “language” of all educated people. Under the influence of the speech of London and the Estuary English, even RP changed, though it is understandable that time brings changes into any language. Hence, we can conclude, that since the 80-ies Estuary English, as a uniting language, started to spread faster and its influence became more profound. However, that is not the only reason for spreading EE.

Today, in Britain, the Traditional Dialects, which can be found in different geographical regions, gradually disappear. Instead of these dialects come mixed forms of RP and Standard English, Cockney (the London working-class dialect), and the Estuary English. As for Estuary English, the pronunciation is easier, the rules are slightly changed and the articulation seems to sound more fluent. For example, in the Estuary, the l-vocalization means pronouncing the l-sound in certain positions almost like [w]. So, Tamara Beckwith says, that it is easier to say “Aawight, know worra mean, innit?” (which would mean “all right,[you] know what I mean, isn’t it?”), than to spell all these words out separately. This kind of pronunciation is, of course, the “number one” for British youth. There even appeared the word “youths” for the plural “youth”.

It may seem, that the Oxford English, the “BBC English”, or the RP, will disappear forever. Though everybody knows Estuary English and speaks it, the occasions make the person’s language change. For example, if two exquisitely dressed up girls, now sitting in a café in the center of London and speaking the “most Estuary” Estuary English while discussing their private problems, are at home with their parents, the Standard English, or even the RP will be their language. Even Mr. Tony Blair was noticed by doing this. It is remarkable, for he not only speaks the Oxford English, he also perfectly uses the London slanginess, and even the northern idioms in his speeches. This kind of behavior shows the flexibility of one’s character and the ability to understand others. Consequently, one can see, that the lower-level language became a widely spread “norm” as for simple people, who might not even know the exquisite English, as for the politicians.

However, many people, who are speaking only RP, find Estuary English vulgar. There exists the prejudice, that Estuary is a lower sort of English, for it originated in the middle-classes of the British society. Those, who are acquainted with the Oxford English and RP, would never say their favourite dialect to be Estuary. This concerns especially the middle-aged RP speakers, who, in time, do not notice the gradual change in the RP, which they speak. Scholars, however, say, that RP is changing and will further change under the influence of the new dialect(s), preferably because of its (their) simplicity.

Together with Estuary English, the new Modern Dialects make up a great concern for the linguists, for, as stated in a newspaper article, even the Queen speaks Estuary English. So, Gudrun Parsons, a German scholar, investigated the issue of teaching English as a foreign language and the influence of Estuary English on the type of English, which the foreigners have to learn. So, she came up with no concrete information about the Estuary English, however, she has discovered, that the preferred English version in Europe was the British English, RP. But this dialect was not the same as in Britain, for the European languages are more likely to sound in English like Scottish English, and the natives would not understand the “proper” RP. Therefore, the English pronunciation is very close to a softened standard, and the Scottish standard is applied. The influence of the Estuary English yet cannot be traced in the teaching of English as a foreign language. J.C. Wells states, that this is a common gradual historical process. Within a nation the language suffers rapid changes, however, in a worldwide aspect, a language has to become wholly accepted by natives in order to become accepted by the teachers, textbooks, etc. Nevertheless, it is yet not the case about Estuary, which has won Britain, but not yet the world’s British English speakers.

Bibliography:

David Rosewarne, Times Educational Supplement.1984.

Tim Redford, The Guardian, Thursday December 21, 2000.

John Wells, in English Teaching Professional, 1997.

Peter Trudgill, Sociolinguistic Variation and Change, 2001.

Gudrun Parsons, From “RP” to “Estuary English”, 1998.

Kirsten Sellars, We wanna talk like common people, 21 June 1997.