Estuary English - A Controversial Issue?
Thames and its estuary". However, in the name itself the Thames is not mentioned.
This seems to have irritated some of the academics, who willingly displayed their
reluctance to the term. In his posting to the Linguist List, for instance, Battarbee
(1996) talks of "... regional arrogance of the SouthEast within the UK: it takes for
granted that 'Estuary' means the Thames Estuary. There are many estuaries in Great
Britain, and several of the emerging regional mega-accents are estuarially based".
Other linguists have criticised the term because it suggests that the variety is restricted
to the area of the Thames estuary. Trudgill (2001) severely criticises both the concept
of EE and its name, among others because "it suggests that it is a variety of English
confined to the banks of the Thames Estuary, which it is not". Also Maidment (1994)
expresses his negative attitude to the term: "... Estuary English, if it exists at all, is
not only spoken on or near the Thames estuary
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