English language in Southern England

Varieties of English language in Southern England

English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern English English; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England. As of the 21st century, a wide class of dialects labelled "Estuary English" is on the rise in South East England and the Home Counties (the counties bordering London), which was the traditional interface between the London urban region and more local and rural accents. Commentators report widespread homogenisation in South East England in the 20th century (Kerswill & Williams 2000; Britain 2002). This involved a process of levelling between the extremes of working class Cockney in inner city London and the careful upper class standard accent of Southern England, Received Pronunciation (RP), popular in the 20th century with upper middle and upper class residents. Now spread throughout the South East region, Estuary English is the resulting mainstream accent that combines features of both Cockney and a more middle class RP. Less affluent areas have variants of Estuary English that grade into southern rural England outside urban areas. Outside of South East England, West Country English (of South West England) and East Anglian English survive as traditional broad dialects in Southern England today, though they too are subject to Estuary English influence in recent decades and are consequently weakening.

Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE), colloquially called Blockney or Jafaican, is a dialect (and/or sociolect) of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by youths in multicultural parts of working class London. The speech of Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in London shows interesting combinations of the Jamaican accent with the London accent. For example, in Jamaican English, is replaced by , for example both In London, word final is realised as , as mentioned above. In Jamaican London speech, glottalization of applies also to from , for example both of them Hypercorrections like for foot are also heard from Jamaicans. John C. Wells's dissertation, Jamaican pronunciation in London, was published by the Philological Society in 1973.

Berkshire and Hampshire are on the modern day border between Estuary English and West Country English. Berkshire is predominantly non rhotic today, but traditional accents may still be found across the county. Parts of West Berkshire may still be rhotic or variably rhotic today, though this feature is quickly becoming ever less frequent. In country areas and Southampton, the older rhotic accent can still be heard amongst some speakers, for example in the speech of John Arlott, Lord Denning and Reg Presley. Since the 1960s, particularly in Andover and Basingstoke, the local accent has changed reflecting the arrival of East Londoners relocated by London County Council. It can be argued that Hampshire is a borderline county moving East, linguistically. "Estuary isms" can be found in Portsmouth or "Pompey" English, some of which may actually originate from Portsmouth rather than London.

The East Anglian feature of yod dropping was common in Essex. In addition, Mersea Island (though not the rest of Essex) showed some rhoticity in speakers born as late as the early 20th century, a feature that characterised other rural dialects of South East England in the 19th century. Th fronting, a feature now widespread in England, was found throughout Essex in the 1950s Survey of English Dialects, which studied speakers born in the late 1800s. Many words are unique to 19th century Essex dialect, some examples including bonx meaning "to beat up batter for pudding" and hodmedod or hodmadod meaning "snail". Several nonstandard grammatical features exist, such as irregular plural forms like housen for "houses". Modern Essex English is usually associated with non rhotic Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants since World War II. The Essex accent has an east–west variation with the county's west having Estuary English speech features and the county's east having the traditional Essaxon and East Anglian features.