Submitted by kagniesz on 15 May, 2012 - 08:20.
Dr David Hornsby of the University of Kent will give a lecture on Tuesday 15 May 2012 at 11:30, room 601A.
‘All Cockneys now’? Variation and Change in South-Eastern English
Everyone is kindly invited!
Abstract
There can be no doubt that many traditional features of London speech have spread far from the capital, and can now be heard in many urban areas across the South-East, and even beyond. But to assume, as many commentators have done, that a modified form of traditional Cockney, generally labelled ‘Estuary English’, is destroying regional diversity, is to ignore the facts of variation and change in South-East England.
This paper will describe and attempt to explain the spread of a number of traditional London features as used outside the capital, and notably in Kent. Drawing on recent research on London and other regional Englishes, it will introduce a number of varieties used in the South-East, from Cockney and Standard English on the one hand, to Estuary English, traditional Kentish dialects, Aylesham koiné, and the new multicultural London English, which has attracted negative comment in some quarters, on the other. It is hoped that, at the very least, a future exchange student to Kent will gain some insight into the many ways in which British English in its South-Eastern corner differs profoundly from the Standard English of the BBC.
Posted by Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak
