- cross-posted to:
- anthropology@mander.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- anthropology@mander.xyz
Cockney and received pronunciation (Queen’s English) were once spoken by people of all ages, but they are no longer commonly spoken among young people in the south-east of England.
In new research, colleagues and I recorded the voices of 193 people between the ages of 18 and 33 from across south-east England and London. We then built a computer algorithm which “listened” to how they spoke and grouped them by how similarly they pronounced vowels in different words.
We identified three main accents:standard southern British English, multicultural London English and estuary English.
This is just another study confirming what has been known for years. MLE is the multicultural expansion of cockney. Much of the accent survives, but has been modified by exposure to many cultures. Its been identified as the dominant native london accent foresomething like a decade.