The search for linguistically coherent accents

Abstract Linguistic research refers to many related accents in Southeast England: Standard Southern British English (SSBE), Received Pronunciation (RP), Estuary (EE), Cockney and Multicultural London (MLE). However, there is inconsistency imprecision the demarcation of these based on linguistic social factors. This paper delineates England patterns co-variation which we then relate predictors. We applied functional Principal Component Analysis F1 F2 measurements for diphthongs extracted from wordlist passage productions 193 young, south-eastern speakers. Components were entered into a clustering analysis that identified co-occurrence. Three clusters emerge, broadly aligning with SSBE, MLE EE both illustrate centre gravity three diphthong systems use as reference points future research, discuss need make explicit how are defined.