Some Traits of Estuary and Cockney English

An example of some traits of EE and Cockney is Mike Skinner from The Streets, a successful
band/rap group. The singer grew up in Birmingham and his songs mirror several traits typical of EE
and Cockney. Listen to his hit single Dry Your Eyes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHr-
4SeILI from the album A Grand Don’t Come For Free (2004) and pay attention to these examples:

- (0:17) vocalisation of dark /l/ when /həʊl/ is pronounced /hoʊ/

- (0:25) vocalisation of dark /l/ when “world” is realised as /woʊ/

- (0:35) /əˈdʒʌst/ “adjust” realised as /əˈdʒʌs/, completely dropping the final /t/. This happens on
several occasions

- (0:40) /h/ dropping and glottal stop in “look at her” /lʊk əɁ ə/

- (0:45) /θruː/ (through) pronounced /fruː/

- (0:49) /ɪˈtɜːnɪtɪ/ (eternity) realised as /ɪˈtɜːnɪɁi/

- (1:19) smoothing of first two diphthongs /aɪ/ in “by my side”

- (1:28) glottal stop in /aʊtsaɪd/ pronounced /aʊɁsaɪd/.

- (1: 33) /θɪŋz/ realised as /fɪŋz/. Not exaggerated TH fronting, but he is clearly not pronouncing th
‘properly’ (check lips); at (2:24) it’s clearer.

- (1:46) /wɪð/ (with) pronounced /wɪv/

- (2:11) /h/ is pronounced less prominently, as in “hurts”, but there are few very distinguished
examples of /h/ dropping.

- (2:24) Clearer th fronting in /θɪŋz/ pronounced /fɪŋz/