Anyone knowing about Dido's accent?

[Mehrgan]

Hi all,
Does anyone know what accent Dido's got? Is it simply called a 'London Accent'? (And not 'Cockney', of course.)


What I'm interested to know is if this is the main accent lots of Londoners have, because obviously it's got nothing to do with the features heard in Cockney. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me with this!


(All those 'glottals' can make my day! Such a brilliant accent! )

 

[5jj]

I'd call it general southern English rather than London. This type of accent is common among younger people (to me, that's anyone under 40). Personally, I don't feel that it is far enough away from modern standard educated southern English to be classed as 'Estuary English, but others may disagree.

I used my own term 'modern standard educated southern English', because I am not absolutely clear exactly what we mean by RP (Received Pronunciation) these days.

 

[5jj]

Hugh Grant has what I consider to be modern RP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJHP-zQAuA


Here the northern Parkinson interviews two Estuary English speakers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKtJIzdK4T4&feature=relmfu

Here is something about RP. The speaker here has an accent that is close to RP, in my opinion, but has a touch of northern English in the vowel in ‘class’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIemPxHSb6Q&feature=related

 

[Mehrgan]

Hugh Grant has what I consider to be modern RP:
‪Hugh Grant on hacking‬‏ - YouTube


Here the northern Parkinson interviews two Estuary English speakers:
‪David and Victoria Beckham interview - part two - Parkinson - BBC‬‏ - YouTube

Here is something about RP. The speaker here has an accent that is close to RP, in my opinion, but has a touch of northern English in vowels in ‘class’:

‪UK accent RP Received Pronunciation‬‏ - YouTube

Wow! Thousands of thanks!
Best to you!

 

[Tdol]

I am not sure what you mean about Cockney.

I would agree with Fivejedjon that it's an accent common among younger people in a lot of the south of England- a sort of young, southern urban English. It sounds like a bit of a mish-mash- some Cockney and London, some Australian, etc.

 

[5jj]

I am not sure what you mean about Cockney.

I took it to mean that Mehrgan was not conufsing Dido's accent, which she though might be called 'London', with Cockney.

 

[Tdol]

I meant this bit:
it's got nothing to do with the features heard in Cockney.
Some features, like the glottal, are found in Cockney.

 

[Mehrgan]

I should be thankful to you both!

Once I was reading this article on Estuary accent, and I think it said an adoption of Cockney accent, due to its being favourable, on the side of those RP speakers over the passage of time lead to what is called Estuary accent. Also, if I'm right, it said Estuary differs from Cockney in that it's got a rule-goverened system of structures, which can even be incorporated into educational course series. Please kindly correct me if I didn't get the info rightly.




Many thanks in advance.

 

[Tdol]

Estuary English has some of the features of Cockney pronunciation, like the glottal, but it follows the patterns and structures of standard English, so it has none of the non-standard forms found in Cockney.

I don't understand what they mean about rule-governed systems as both have rules, but different ones.

 

[Mehrgan]

Estuary English has some of the features of Cockney pronunciation, like the glottal, but it follows the patterns and structures of standard English, so it has none of the non-standard forms found in Cockney.

I don't understand what they mean about rule-governed systems as both have rules, but different ones.

Thanks agian daer Tdol.
Maybe the idea of Estuary's rule-goverened structures is used to show its difference with Cockney when it defies the standard rules at times.

This was a very useful post for me!