Spread
Studies have indicated that the heavy use of South East English accents on television and radio may be the cause of the spread of Cockney English since the 1960s.[76][77][78][79] Cockney is more and more influential and some claim that in the future many features of the accent may become standard.[80]
Scotland
Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas such as Glasgow have begun to use certain aspects of Cockney and other Anglicisms in their speech,[81] infiltrating the traditional Glasgow patter.[82] For example, TH-fronting is commonly found, and typical Scottish features such as the postvocalic /r/ are reduced.[83] Research suggests the use of English speech characteristics is likely to be a result of the influence of London and South East England accents featuring heavily on television.[76][77][78][79] However, such claims have been criticised.[84]
England
Certain features of Cockney - Th-fronting, L-vocalisation, T-glottalisation, and the fronting of the GOAT and GOOSE vowels - have spread across the south-east of England and, to a lesser extent, to other areas of Britain.[85] However, Clive Upton has noted that these features have occurred independently in some other dialects, such as TH-fronting in Yorkshire and L-vocalisation in parts of Scotland.[86]
The term Estuary English has been used to describe London pronunciations that are slightly closer to RP than Cockney. The variety first came to public prominence in an article by David Rosewarne in the Times Educational Supplement in October 1984.[70] Rosewarne argued that it may eventually replace Received Pronunciation in the south-east. The phonetician John C Wells collected media references to Estuary English on a website. Writing in April 2013, Wells argued that research by Joanna Przedlacka "demolished the claim that EE was a single entity sweeping the southeast. Rather, we have various sound changes emanating from working-class London speech, each spreading independently."[87]