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Tag Archives: Estuary English
“Orphan Black’s” House of Dialect Mirrors
I’ve recently been watching Orphan Black, BBC America’s sci-fi mystery about human clones. For reference, here is the guns-sex-and-intrigue-laden preview: The show admittedly has its silly moments, but its lead actor makes up for these. Not only does one woman (Tatiana Maslany) … Continue reading
Chelsea-Speak
While doing some channel surfing the other day, I stumbled upon the reality show Made in Chelsea. I’d describe the program to Americans as akin to The Hills or Laguna Beach (although I don’t recall Lauren Conrad cracking jokes about “phonological … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged dialects in TV, Estuary English, Received Pronunciation (RP) 11 Comments
Bidder Budder Badder: The Extent of T-tapping
Americans like myself ‘tap’ the ‘t’ in between vowels. This means that the ‘t’ in ‘butter’ is pronounced not with a /t/ sound, but rather with the ‘r’ consonant in Spanish ‘pero.’ The common impression, though, is that ‘t’ becomes … Continue reading
Posted in English Phonetics Tagged Cockney, Estuary English, phonetics, Received Pronunciation (RP) 32 Comments
Anovver Fing About Th-Fronting
In our discussions of dialect evolution in the UK, a common denominator is th-fronting. To review: th-fronters turn ‘th‘ words into ‘f’ or ‘v’ words: ‘thing’ becomes ‘fing,’ ‘bother’ becomes ‘bovver,’ and ‘both’ becomes ‘bof.’ It’s a feature common in … Continue reading
The Most Controversial Thing I Said on this Site
Writing about dialects (or anything language-related), it’s hard to avoid disagreement. Yet of all the things I’ve said here, my most controversial statement, it seems, is something fairly trivial. That would be my assertion that comedian Ricky Gervais speaks with an … Continue reading
Is the Glasgow Accent Being “Cockneyfied?”
I’ve often discussed Estuary English, the London-influenced accent spreading throughout England. One piece of evidence? Young people in Glasgow seem to be adopting ‘Cockney’ pronunciations. If the Glasgow accent is indeed becoming more ‘Southeastern,’ this would be a powerful indicator of London’s … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged Cockney, Estuary English, Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic, scottish accents 35 Comments
Estuary English in the 21st Century
I’ve used the term Estuary English quite a bit on this site. For the dialect novices out there, I’d like to explain what this phrase means, and my personal take on it. Estuary English is a hard concept to define. Sometimes … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged celebrity accents, Estuary English, Received Pronunciation (RP) 28 Comments
On a Lighter Note …
Martin Chilton of The Telegraph wrote a piece yesterday about Mel Gibson‘s accent in the upcoming film, The Beaver, in which Mel adopts a Cockney accent. Here’s the trailer: Chilton, perturbed by Gibson’s accent, had this to say about it: … Continue reading
Sign of the Times: William and Kate’s Accents
Yes, even a blog about accents needs to touch on the Royal Wedding a little bit. I won’t spill more digital ink about the wedding, nor the wedding-mania that swept America this past week. I am, however, fascinated by the … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged class and accent, Estuary English, Received Pronunciation (RP) 36 Comments
“New Joysey” and “Oirish:” 6 Accent Myths
As per yesterday’s post about the mythological Canadian aboot, I’ve thought of some other myths people harbor about accents and dialects of English. Here are a few common misconceptions: 1.) Myth: People in Shakespeare’s day talked more like Americans than … Continue reading