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Gary's (Estuary) Homepage
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In an attempt to look contemplative...
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About Me
I was born in Walthamstow in NE London in April 1971, so at time of writing I'm 33 (unfortunately very soon to be 34...) I lived in Woodford Green till I was 18, then went to Brighton to study - moved round lots since - lived in a few different countries, and am currently in Berlin where I'm studying for my PhD in Linguistics, concentrating on Historical Germanic phonology (title of PhD being Vocalisations in Germanic Dialects).
One of my main interests is Estuary English - of which I'm a fluent native speaker ;) - more of which below...
I like travel which is probably obvious from having moved around a lot and lived in different countries...
I'm not the sportiest of people but I do play badminton regularly and enjoy swimming and table-tennis (if you can count the latter as sport).
And last but certainly not least, I have a partner Micha.
Short Life History
1971 Born Walthamstow London
1971-89 Lived Woodford Green, Essex
1989-93 Sussex University, BSc Mathematics with German
1993-94 Moldova (Chisinau), English Teacher
1994 London, Central Post Office - System Analyser
1994-98 Camberley, CSC - Analyst Programmer (1 year Paris)
1998-99 Prague, English Teacher
1999-2000 Reading, MA Linguistics
2001-2003 Berlin, English Teacher
2003-Present Berlin, PhD Linguistics
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Estuary
The following is an introduction I wrote in 2002 about Estuary for lowlands-l.net (an excellent site...) with a few changes and additions.
Versions given in <> brackets are using the orthography as detailed on the link.
I've rated all the features on the links on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being pure Cockney and 10 being pure RP, Estuary being somewhere in between - this is based on my own feel.
Estuary English
Estuary English, or Popular London English, (both misnomers as it extends to the Home Counties in general and is spreading especially further west, see MAP) is the form of English as spoken in London and the South East of England and is currently gaining some ground as a new “standard” for England English, being used by many news reporters, politicians and prominent people. The accent is largely based on London Cockney English with the most “frowned upon” features taken out. As standard England English (RP) developed from a triangle between London, Oxford and Cambridge, many of the dialect words of this area were incorporated into the standard. This has the result that Estuary does not have many unique local dialect words, however the accent often differs from RP. For a comparison of Estuary with RP and Cockney using the orthography used throughout please go to the North Wind and the Sun story. It should be noted that Estuary like every dialect differs between region and generation. On the links below to phonology, grammar and orthography are some of the main differences, based on my own Estuary (so NELondon). It will naturally differ slightly from Estuary as spoken in Kent, Central London, Hampshire or wherever.
Fiw frij të kontæk mij on taylor16471@aol.com if jyw hæv enij sëdžeštšënz on hæë-wa kën imprywv ðis saj', oo-rif av mist eniþink impuwtën' of ëbæë' Eštšrij. Tšiiz
Feel free to contact me on taylor16471@aol.com if you have any suggestions on how I can improve this site, or if I've missed anything important off about Estuary.
Thank you
Gæri Tejlë (Gary Taylor)
Last modified 18.03.05
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How I first got interested in Language
I've been fascinated by language since at least my primary school. I can remember learning numbers up to 10 in the school playground, saying my 'ern der twa kachrer sank seece se' wee' nerf deece' with a good London accent. I first realised that I spoke with an accent when I went to university, mixing with people from all over the country. They used to laugh at my 'innit' and 'dunnit', and when I said that I'd 'failed' my French O Level, they asked if I'd cheated on the exam thinking I'd 'fouled' | |||||||||||||||||