Received Pronunciation and Estuary English as a recent development of standard British English. The socialinguistic aspect of Estuary English

Type of British English most familiar as the accent used by announcers and newsreaders on serious national and international BBC broadcasting channels, has for a long time been identified by the rather quaint name RP. Formal definitions of "Received Pronunciation"-linguistics dictionary gives "Pronunciation of standard British English based on the speech of educated speakers of southern British English.... the type of pronunciation often recommended as a model for foreign learners."Collins gives "Received Pronunciation, the accent of standard Southern British English" adj. accepted; considered as standard. A century ago Daniel Jones, the great describer and codifier of the Received Pronunciation of English (RP), was fifteen years old. In practice, of course, those who are in contact with current English as now spoken have modified Jones's model, consciously or uncon­sciously, in this or that detail. A number of recent articles have attempted to list the phonetic changes that have taken place in RP since Jones's day (1990).The continued existence of RP may be inferred from the observation that various popular pronunciation features of English remain clearly outside RP and have been firmly resisted by it. Ex­amples include h-dropping, g-dropping, certain realizations of /a-broad /, and certain vowel weakening phenomena. Probably the context in which RP is most widely used is the academic world. Teachers of English as a Foreign Language were mentioned above but the great majority of school teachers within Britain, whether they have regional accents or not, will tend to speak in an accent as close as possible to RP in order to communicate effectively. This is not to say that a regional accent should be a barrier to their ability to teach, but nonetheless RP is considered appropriate in the classroom, particularly in higher education.University lecturers want to convey new information to a large number of students simultaneously, often involving complex ideas. In such a context, we can see the value of an exceptionally clear and universally understood standard pronunciation. Students need not imitate this accent in order to assimilate the information but the fact that it is expressed in RP may well help them to understand more easily.Perhaps surprisingly, one group of speakers who will tend to stay close to RP are those who have learnt English as a second language and achieved a high level of fluency. It is usually quite noticeable because so few native-speakers speak so clearly. People who have learnt English. They are unlikely to adopt linguistic habits that diverge from RP, because they learnt the RP 'standard' pronunciation. Of course, a non-native speaker of English can develop a regional accent, if, for instance, they came to an area with little or no knowledge of English and learnt the language entirely in that region.

"Estuary English" is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist, David Rosewarne. Defined as a "variety of modified regional speech" it becomes "a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation".

Variations do exist within Estuary English and its speakers exhibit a mixture of "London" and General RP forms of phonemes (Rosewarne, 1994). Rosewarne does suggest a number of phonetic/phonological features that differentiate Estuary English from both RP on the one end of the spectrum and Cockney on the other.

-a term coined in 1984 by David Rosewarne

-as a "variety of modified regional speech" it becomes "a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation.

-The term "Estuary " - the starting point for this dialect as being the region along London's

River Thames and its estuaries

-Geography of Estuary English (EE)

-first spoken "by the banks of the Thames and its estuary"

-usage has spread from London and South East England north to Norwich and westwards to Cornwall

-Sociolinguistic issues of Estuary English (EE) obscure social origins and is very often adopted as a neutral accent a traditional RP background - adopt it because it increases "street credibility" local accents - adopt it because it sounds more "sophisticated"

-has also been heard on the BBC, by members in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament as well as by business men in the "City" which is the heart of the business district of the city of London

Features of Estuarv English (EE)

L vocalization - use of /w/ where RP uses /1/ in the final positions or in a final consonant clus­ter

"A real salesman will always feel a fool if he fails to sell or his deal falls through.„

/r/ realization in EE - In Estuary- English realization of /r/ the "tip of the tongue is lowered and the central part raised to a position close to, but not touching, the soft palate." He de­scribes it as sounding similar to a general American /r/ but without the retroflection.

Stress and intonation - frequent prominence being given to prepositions and auxiliary verbs which are not normally stressed in General R.P e.g. " Let us get TO the point."

Grammar - Cockney speakers use more non-standard grammar than do speakers of EE. E.g. EE - you were Cockney - you was

Sociolinguistic issues of Estuary English (EE):

A reason posited for the growth of EE, especially among young people, is that it is said to "obscure social origins and is very often adopted as a neutral accent." (Kohlmyer, 1996) Those who have come from a traditional RP background, adopt it because it increases "street credibility," and those who have local accents adopt it because it sounds more "sophisticated." Rosewarne thus sees the acquisition of Estuary English as part of the process of accommodation and a shift to the "middle ground" so that the RP accent is accommodated "downwards" and the local accent is accommodated "upward", resulting in accent convergence. The sociolinguistic consequences of this are that for over a decade, it has been common for the young people in the south eastern segment of England to speak differently from their older family members.

This somewhat "new" accent has also been heard on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), by members in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament as well as by business men in the "City" which is the heart of the business district of the city of London.

Rosewarne, (1994) sees Estuary English not only as a "bridge between various classes" as Paul Coggle, (1994) states, but as "a sign that class barriers are coming down." Coggle, (2000) also notes however, that currently in England, there are people who speak with an EE accent in positions of power who would never have managed to achieve their positions previously with the kinds of accents they have. He also believes that "Tony Blair is not averse to employing glottal stops when he thinks the company he is in calls for it" (Coggle, 2000).

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