Below you can find a sociophonetic comparison of three persons: a singer Kate Nash, a politician Tony Blair and a journalist Simon Reeve. They all speak Estuary English or Cockney (Mockney) and each of them has got different education. Furthermore, they were all raised in various environments, which might have a huge impact on their accents. Figure 1 below contains information concerning the speakers’ sociophonetic aspects of lives:
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Kate Nash
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Tony Blair
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Simon Reeve
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Profession
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singer
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politician
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journalist, TV presenter
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Born / age
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London, 1987 / 23
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Edinburgh, 1953 / 57
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London, 1972 / 38
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Lived in
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London
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Adelaide in Australia, Glasgow, Durham
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London
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Social class
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Middle-class
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Upper-middle-class
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Middle-class
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Father / mother
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English / Irish
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English / Irish
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No data
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Education
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BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in South London
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St John’s College in Oxford
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Comprehensive school
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Taught RP?
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Yes
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Yes
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No data
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Familiar
with Cockney speakers? |
Yes
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No
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Yes
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Actual accent
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Mockney
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RP / Estuary English
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Estuary English
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Public opinion on their accent
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Still too “posh”, affected
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Flexible
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Natural
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Reasons of adopting Cockney features
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Following Lily Allen; gaining fans
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Being more flexible to “fit in with many groups”
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Vigorous, natural accent from regions for the BBC programmes
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Fig. 1 Social aspects of the speakers’ lives
Buy my e-book "British Accents: Cockney, RP, Estuary English" http://www.przegladdziennikarski.pl/jezyki-obce/english/e-book-british-accents-cockney-rp-estuary-english/
