NO, Beckham is "amazing".

I find the glottal stop very irritating when used outside of its proper home in the East End. At the same time the "accentless" Estuary middle class English of the two parents om Modern Family (particularly the wife) is incredibly annoying with that nasal thing trying to be posh. But then listen to he Princes and even they  have succumbed to the speech. I suspect you will never hear the upper classes/educated classes ever speak  again like those you hear on Antiques Road Show with the mellifluous if somewhat fruity tones.

The worst aspect of the new Estuary speak is the pronunciation of the "oo" sound that has developed in the last 20 years eg "burk" instead of "book". Really annoying when you watch a documentary on Captain Cook and the well educated professor is talking about what "Curk" did in the Pacific.

Despite the flat vowels the speech in Australia has moved away generally from the broad accent (Ocker) towards a more pleasant speech without corrupted dipthongs etc.

Last edited by meister (2012-01-23 14:42:30)

corrupted dipthongs indeed