Estuary English 35


I have managed to cause a stir with my dismissive comments on estuary english on the BBC in my last post. I do not think the estuary english phenomenon should be confused with a regional accent. I have absolutely no prejudice against regional accent. I sport the remnants of one myself. The genuine regional accent of Essex is very pleasant, and not too dissimilar to that of Suffolk. It is not a bastardized version of cockney adopted by the weak-minded because it is redolent of a set of identifiable and fashionable cultural attitudes, of which materialism and anti-intellectualism are the most prominent.

Is it snobbery to despise estuary english and those who speak it? No. It is something called taste.


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35 thoughts on “Estuary English

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  • dreoilin

    Suhayl, you asked about paragraphs on another thread?
    Look for the dots (full stops) in Wikispooks comment up above.
    .
    ^ Or see that just there.

  • Paul Johnston

    @Suhayl
    I was born on Parkstone Road which then (1963) was the last Road in Hull, before they built the Ghost Estate.
    Last time I was at Castle Hill was when my Dad was in there with TB.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Paul, wow, small world, eh?!! Yes, in the late 1950s/early 1960s, my dad was a cardiothoracic surgeon at Castle Hill Hospital. What a wonderful name – and title – ‘The Ghost Estate’.

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