Features

Since Estuary English is an accent rather than a dialect, most of the linguistic features that makes it different from RP (the accent of Standard English) are phonological rather than lexical or syntactical. This means that Estuary English does not have any words or sentence structures that makes it distinct from RP. Because of this, the features discussed in this section are mostly related to sound production. They are divided into two parts – features of consonant pronunciation and features of vowel pronunciation. It is also worth mentioning that all phonetic transcriptions of words in RP were taken from Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries.

Consonants

There are five main consonant-related features Estuary English has: t-glottalization, l-vocalization, yod-coalescence, non-rhoticity and intrusive r.

t-glottalization

According to Wells, who also referred to t-glottalization as ‘glottalling’, this term denotes ‘using a glottal stop <…> (a catch in the throat) instead of a t-sound in certain positions’ (1998). Roach gives a slightly more elaborate explanation of the phenomenon: ‘One of the functions of a closure of the vocal folds is to produce a consonant. In a true glottal stop there is complete obstruction to the passage of air, and the result is a period of silence’ (2011: 38). Roach also remarks that ‘sometimes a glottal stop is pronounced in front of a p, t or k if there is not a vowel immediately following’ (2011: 38). However, in the case of Estuary English (and most other urban accents), /t/ is replaced by a glottal stop rather than preceded by it, so Wells’ definition will be employed further on.

The phonetic symbol used to indicate a glottal stop in IPA is /ʔ/. Some common examples of glottalization are words such as cat ([kæt] without a glottal stop and [kæʔ] with it), button ([ˈbʌtn] without a glottal stop and [ˈbʌʔn] with it) and even the word glottal itself (pronounced [ˈɡlɒtl] by RP speakers and [ˈɡlɒʔl] by those who use glottal stops, e. g. Estuary English speakers).

l-vocalization

This feature of Estuary English entails pronouncing /l/ ‘in certain positions almost like [w]’ (Wells 1998). The instances of /l/ that are affected by l-vocalization are usually those that are ‘dark’ in RP (e. g. pool [puːl] or milk [mɪlk]) as opposed to those that are ‘clear’ (e. g. leaf [liːf], black [blæk]). Though not always, ‘dark’ /l/ (the /l/ sound that is vocalized) is usually more likely to be near the ending of a syllable. Some examples of l-vocalization are real ([rɪəl] in RP and [rɪəw] or [rɪw] in Estuary English), trouble ([ˈtrʌbl] in RP and [ˈtrʌbw] in Estuary English) and doll ([dɒl] in RP and [dɒw] in Estuary English).

yod-coalescence

The British Library defines this feature as ‘blending of the <y> sound with the <t, d, s, z> sound preceding an <oo> vowel’ (2017). Wells explains it in a more comprehensible manner: ‘using [tS] (a ch-sound) rather than [tj] (a t-sound plus a y-sound) in words like Tuesday, tune, attitude’ and ‘the RP [dj] of words such as duke, reduce becomes Estuary [dZ], making the second part of reduce identical to juice, [dZu:s]‘ (1998).

Yod-coalescence is responsible for the fact that affricates (OLD: ‘a speech sound that is made up of a plosive followed immediately by a fricative’) are more prominent in Estuary English than in RP, since common words, such as Tuesday ([ˈtjuːzdeɪ]) or dune ([djuːn]) become choose day ([ˈtʃuːzdeɪ]) and June ([dʒuːn]).

Non-rhoticity

Non-rhoticity is a common feature of many Great Britain’s accents, since English is a non-rhotic language. To put it simply, in Standard British English and many other varieties of English the sound /r/ is almost never pronounced if it is not followed by a vowel. The term rhoticity refers to the rhotic consonant /r/, which is pronounced by Scottish or American English speakers in words like car or early. Estuary English speakers, much like RP speakers, do not pronounce the /r/ sound in such words, preferring to drive a [kɑː] rather than a [kɑːr] and have an [ˈɜːli] lunch rather than an [ˈɜːrli] one.

Intrusive r

The last feature of consonants in Estuary English I would like to discuss is the intrusive /r/. Defined as ‘insertion of an <r> sound between vowels at a word boundary regardless of spelling’ (The British Library 2017), this characteristic of Estuary English manifests itself in such pronunciations as [ˌlɔː rən ˈɔːdə] of law and order and [ˈdrɔːrɪŋ] of drawing.

Vowels

Regarding vowels, there is one main difference between RP and Estuary English accents – there is much more acceptable pronunciation variants in the latter than in the former. Usually vowels can be pronounced in many different ways without disturbing the integrity of the accent. For example:

  • /iː/ (as in fleece) can be realised as [iː], [ɪi] or [əi]. For example, the word cease, which is pronounced [siːs] in RP, could be as well pronounced as [sɪis] or [səis]. The RP pronunciation is also acceptable.
  • /uː/ (as in goose) can be realised as [ʏː], [ɪ̝ː], [ʉː], [ɨː], [ʉ̠ː], [u̟ː]. For example, use, [juːz] in RP, has a number of acceptable pronunciations in Estuary English: [jʏːz], [jɪ̝ːz], [jʉːz], [jɨːz], [jʉ̠ːz] and [ju̟ːz].
  • /ʌ/ (as in strut) can be realised as [ɒ], [ʌ], [ɐ], [ɐ̟], [æ], [ɐ]. This makes such words as hut ([hʌt] in RP) be able to be pronounced as [hɒt], [hʌt], [hɐt], [hɐ̟t], [hæt] (in this case hut and hat become homophones) or [hɐt].

What Estuary English is not

Wells, one of the most prominent figures in Estuary English studies, felt that it was important to mention what the accent, ‘unlike Cockney, <…> does not involve’ (1998). Indeed, sometimes it is challenging to distinguish between a speaker of Estuary English and some other urban accent. Wells (1998) distinguishes two main features that Estuary English does not posses that make its recognition easier:

  • h-dropping. Characteristic to many urban accents, the omission of /h/ sound in words is not very prevalent in Estuary English.
  • th-fronting. This refers to ‘using labiodental fricatives ([f, v]) instead of dental fricatives ([T, D])’ (Wells 1998). However, nowadays some tendencies of th-fronting have appeared. Though they are not yet officially recognized, it is possible that in the future this feature will be as linked to Estuary English as t-glottalization is.