English Accents: RP, Cockney, Estuary & World English

Posted on Jan 31, 2025 in History

Understanding Received Pronunciation (RP)

RP, described by Daniel Jones in the 1890s, is considered a ‘neutral’ accent, often associated with prestige. It’s also known as BBC English, Queen’s English, or Standard English. RP is defined sociolinguistically, not geographically, and is typically used by the ‘educated’ upper and upper-middle classes.

Key Features of RP

  • Non-rhoticity: A distinctive feature of RP, where the ‘r’ sound is not pronounced after a vowel (e.g., car, arm).
  • Intrusive ‘r’: Originated in London, linking ‘r’ occurs when a word ending in ‘r’ is followed by a vowel (e.g., water ice [wɔːtər aɪs] becomes [wɔːtəraɪs]).

Examples:

  • water ice [wɔːtər aɪs] = [wɔːtəraɪs]
  • here I am (but not in here they are)

Cockney English

Cockney is a broad form of London accent, originally from the East End, used by working classes. It’s characterized by unique pronunciation and lexical features, including rhyming slang.

Main Features of Cockney

  • ‘t’ glottalization: Glottal stop before consonants or at the end of words (e.g., eight /eɪt/ > /eɪʔ/) and between vowels (e.g., butter /bʌtə/ > /bʌʔə/).
  • Intrusive ‘r’: Similar to RP (e.g., I saw it = I sawrit).
  • ‘h’ dropping: Dropping of the voiceless glottal fricative /h/ (e.g., House /aʊs/ and Hammer /æmə/).
  • Replacement of dental fricatives: /θ/ and /ð/ replaced by labiodentals /f/ and /v/ (e.g., Thin /θɪn/ > /fɪn/, Brother /brʌðə/ > /brʌvə/).

Estuary English (EE)

Coined in 1984 by David Rosewarne, EE is spoken around the Thames estuary and has spread towards East Anglia and Cornwall. It blends elements of RP and Cockney.

Features of Estuary English

  • Non-rhoticity: As in RP.
  • Intrusive ‘r’: As in RP.
  • ‘t’ glottalization: As in Cockney.
  • ‘l’ vocalization: Use of /w/ where RP uses /l/ in word-final position (e.g., I will always: /aɪ wɪl ɔːlweɪz/ > /aɪ wɪw ɔːlweɪz/).

World Englishes

English is spoken by a significant portion of the world’s population. Bailey (1991) estimated 15%, while Crystal (2003) estimated 25% (1.5 billion).

Kachru’s Circles

Kachru (1985) categorized English usage into three circles:

  • Inner circle: Where English is used in the home (e.g., GB, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, NZ).
  • Outer circle: Where English is part of the government/school system (e.g., India, Singapore, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka).
  • Expanding circle: Where there is no history of colonization, but English is used for communication (e.g., Europe, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia).