Increased multiculturalism will see the 'th' sound vanish because it is difficult for foreigners to pronounce
Sarah Knapton, 29 September 2016 • 12:01am
Visitors expecting to hear the Queen’s English spoken on the streets of London in 50 years may need to "fink" again. By 2066, linguists are predicting that the "th" sound in words such as “think”, “thin” and “thoughtful” will vanish completely in the capital city because there are so many foreigners who struggle to pronounce this sound which in linguistic terms is called an interdental consonants - the term for a sound created by pushing the tongue against the upper teeth.
Already what is known as Estuary English – a hybrid of Cockney and Received Pronunciation (RP) which is prevalent in the South East of England – is being replaced by Multicultural London English (MLE) which is heavily influenced by Caribbean, West African, and Asian Communities.
However, Dr. Dominic Watt of The University of York warns that within the next few decades, immigration will have fundamentally altered the English language and we can expect to see significant changes between now and the middle of the century.
The "th" sound is likely to change to be replaced an "f", "d", or "v" meaning "mother" will be pronounced "muvver" and "thick" will be voiced as "fick".
However the ‘h’ that fell silent in the London dialect called Cockney, typically spoken by those who are born in the east part of the city, is set to return allowing ‘ere’ to become ‘here’ once more.
Dr Dominic Watt, a sociolinguistics expert from the University of York, said: “Given the status of London as the linguistically most influential city in the English-speaking world, we can expect to see significant changes between now and the middle of the century.
“The major changes in the way we speak over the next 50 years will involve a simplification of the sound structure of words, they’ll become shorter probably “By looking at how English has changed over the last 50 years we can identify patterns that seem to repeat. British accents seem to be less based on class these days.
“Languages also change when they come into contact with one another. English has borrowed thousands of words from other languages: mainly French, Latin and Greek, but there are ‘loan words’ from dozens of other languages in the mix.”
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