Estuary EnglishEstuary English is the form of the English language common in the South-East of England, especially along the river Thames and its estuary. It is a hybrid of Received Pronunciation and a number of South Eastern accents, particularly from the London and Essex area. Some people think it will eventually replace Received Pronunciation as the Standard English pronunciation.
Estuary shares the following features with Cockney pronunciation:
- Using some glottal stops: that is, "t" is sounded as a glottal occlusion instead of being fully pronounced when it occurs before a consonant or at the end of words, as in "eight" or "McCartney" (but never as a glottal stop between vowels, as in Cockney or in southern dialects, e.g. "water").
- Sounding the diphthong vowel sounds of words like "I" similar to an "Oy" sound, only slightly more open. The diphthong in words like "brown" is made like "bran".
- Muting the "r" sound at the end of words or before a consonant, and lengthening the vowel preceding it.