 In the first e-lecture of the series English in England we discussed the central aspects of England's leading phonological dialect received pronunciation. And we mentioned the problems connected with RP. RP has often been critically judged as a social dialect which is not used by a large percentage of the actual population. Hence it is not surprising that new reference models have been proposed as an alternative. One of them is Estuary English, a new variety of modified regional speech. Now the phenomenon of Estuary English was first described in 1984 by David Roseworn who at the time was a postgraduate student in London. In the Times Educational Supplement he described Estuary English in terms of a continuum where Estuary English is in fact somewhere in the middle between the two extremes, RP, and Cockney, the local London speech. Thus in contrast to RP Estuary English is a regional dialect. Now it is this region roughly where Estuary English can primarily be found. That is the most influential phonological dialect in the southeast of England. Let's look at a map here to find out which counties in particular are those where Estuary English can be found. Now here you find the heartland of Estuary English, for example Essex and of course London itself or Surrey and finally Kent. Now to describe the phonology of Estuary English we have to look at the two extremes and their phonological features. And the two extremes are of course received pronunciation and Cockney. Received pronunciation whose sound system we defined in the first e-lecture on this series as a reference model for English in England and Cockney the broadest form of the local London accent. We will then see where Estuary English is a mixture of these two varieties where it incorporates the features of Cockney and where it leaves the RP sound system intact. So let us now first look at Cockney. Now Cockney is the broadest form of the local London accent. It traditionally refers only to specific regions and speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak what is referred to as popular London they do not necessarily speak Cockney. The popular Londoner can also be found outside of the capital unlike the true Cockney accent. The Cockney area and its colorful characters and accents have often become the foundation of British soap operas and other television specials. Since the 1990s the BBC has been showing one of the most popular soaps set in this region the EastEnders. The characters, accents and lives provide wonderful opportunities for observers of language and culture. Here is the 1984 BBC trailer. The EastEnders are coming to BBC One. Apart from its sound system Cockney is characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage and traditionally by its own development of a so-called rhyming slang the Cockney rhyming slang. Well this is a story in its own right and we have no time to go into details in this e-lecture. So let us now look at the phonological properties of Cockney. Among the main phonological features of Cockney are the use of the glottal stop. Now this is particularly characteristic of Cockney and can be manifested in different ways such as tea glottaling in the final position. A 1970s study of school children living in the EastEnd found all voiceless plosives almost invariably glottalized in final position. So words like well hap, hat and hack came out all out as with no audible alveolar plosive in the end. Word internally only te however is glottalized for example in words such as butter which comes out as ba or city which will be city. Now try this one a little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it. So this is an example of te replacement in Cockney. A second feature is H-dropping. Now this occurs word initially in the working class accents throughout England but it is certainly heard more in Cockney than elsewhere. The usage is strongly stigmatized by teachers and many other standard speakers. Example would be words such as house which becomes else or hammer which becomes hammer. T-H fronting or the replacement of the dental friccatives by labial dental ones involves words such as fin which comes out as fin or brother which would be realized as a brother in Cockney. The vocalization of dark L is also an interesting feature. Now this involves words such as hill where the dark L is replaced by a labial vela approximate and the result would be hill. And now we will turn our attention to vowels. The lowering of final schwa is also a remarkable feature of Cockney where words such as dinner come out as dinner. So a slight lowering of schwa to a more open position. The remaining features concern the vowels of Cockney and now here we can consider the vowel system as a whole. For example several monophones are diphthongized in Cockney. Now the key words can be found here beat, boot and water. Now beat would be diphthongized to bait. Boot would come out as boat and water would come out as water. Water. Let's now look at the second feature and this concerns diphthongle changes. Now here are the key words again the in RP you would pronounce them as bait, bite and choice. In Cockney we have an interesting transition of the onset of each of these diphthongs for example bait would move its onset to bite. Bite by contrast would come out as boy. By the way I have to drop the final global stop so I have to repeat that bait boy and finally choice will be moved up to choice. Finally we should add that like RP Cockney exhibits a low degree of roticity. Let us now see which properties of Cockney are used in Estuary English. Now the use of the global stop can certainly be found in Estuary English too. However it would be confined to contexts before consonants in words such as Scotland or Gatwick. Words like butter would still be realized as butter in Estuary English. In other words Estuary English speakers use fewer global stops for to and to. This is why I put the acceptance symbol into brackets. H-dropping in words such as else do not occur in Estuary English. And likewise initial th's or th that is dental fricatives between consonants as in words like brava in Cockney would not be used in Estuary English. So here we stick to the former received pronunciation realization of the dental fricatives. Now the vocalization of dark L is certainly a feature which can be found in Estuary English. So words such as hill would in fact be realized as hill even in Estuary English. Now concerning the vowel qualities we can simply say that vowel qualities in Estuary English are a compromise between unmodified regional forms and those of general RP. By the way both Cockney and Estuary English just like RP realize the feature of your dropping. That is they lose the alveolar approximate in particular contexts. It is no longer pronounced after for example the alveolar lateral as in absolute. No one says absolute anymore but is still used after the voiceless alveolar fricative as in assume where people would not say assume. Both varieties last but not least are low in terms of roticity. So here we can add low but make use of the linking and the intrusive are. Let's summarize for many speakers of English RP has long served as the leading variety of English in England. Estuary English may now be taking over this function. For large and influential sections of the young Estuary English is used as the new reference model for the pronunciation of English in England. Thus maybe Estuary English will eventually become the received pronunciation of the future.