The common
pronunciation of
English by the younger generation in
England, originating in
London and the
Thames Estuary but spreading widely. The name was defined by the language teacher
David Rosewarne in 1984 and it was further studied in a book by the linguist
Paul Coggle in 1993. It is characterised by among other things
- glottal stops for T at the ends of words (as in but) and between vowels (butter)
- the use of chu and ju even when stressed as in Tuesday and reduce
- rounded R
- final Y as in city having the vowel of tea not tit
Another Estuary
feature is shared with Cockney, turning an L at the end of a
syllable into a kind of W or O. I think fewer educated
Londoners use this than the other ones I've listed above.
It is not radically different from other accents, but is on a continuum roughly midway between the older style called Received Pronunciation and the London-specific Cockney dialect. Not everyone who's young and from London uses Estuary, and not everyone who does use Estuary uses all the features.
What Estuary speakers don't use is the dialectal grammar of Cockney: they don't say you was or we was or past tense I come, for example.