Estuary English Estuary English Estuary English is an English dialect or accent associated with South East England, especially the area along the River Thames and its estuary, centering around London. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the south-east of England" but criticised the notion that the spread of language from London to the southeast was anything new. The name comes from the area around the Thames, particularly its Estuary. Estuary English can be heard from some people in London, north Surrey, Kent, south Hertfordshire, Essex and is now also becoming
Estuary English various rates "socially" into middle-class speech and "geographically" into other accents of southeastern England. The scholar Alan Cruttenden uses the term London Regional General British in preference to the popular term 'Estuary English'. The names listed above may be abbreviated: Some authors use different names for EE closer to Cockney (Popular London) and EE closer to Received Pronunciation (London Regional Standard or South-Eastern Regional Standard). Note that some other authors use the name Popular London to refer to Cockney itself. The boundary between Estuary English and Cockney is far from clearcut. Several writers have argued that Estuary English is not