English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern English English; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England. As of the 21st century, a wide class of dialects labelled "Estuary English" is on the rise in South East England and the Home Counties (the counties bordering London), which was the traditional interface between the London urban region and more local and rural accents. Commentators report widespread homogenisation in South East England in the 20th century (Kerswill & Williams 2000; Britain 2002). This involved a process of levelling between the extremes of working-class Cockney in inner-city London and the careful upper-class standard accent of Southern England, Received Pronunciation (RP), popular in the 20th century with upper-middle and upper-class residents. Now spread throughout the South East region, Estuary English is the resulting mainstream accent that combines features of both Cockney and a more middle-class RP. Less affluent areas have variants of Estuary English that grade into southern rural England outside urban areas. Outside of South East England, West Country English (of South West England) and East Anglian English survive as traditional broad dialects in Southern England today, though they too are subject to Estuary English influence in recent decades and are consequently weakening. London and Estuary English London and greater Thames Estuary accents are non-rhotic: that is, the consonant (phonetically ) occurs only before vowels. General characteristics of all major London accents include: diphthongal realisation of and , for example beat , boot (this can also be a monophthong: ) diphthongal realisation of in open syllables, for example bore , paw versus a monophthongal realisation in closed syllables, for example board , pause . But the diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause often contrast with bored and paws . lengthening of in words such as man, sad, bag, hand (cf. can, had, lad): split of into two phonemes and . See bad–lad split. an allophone of before "dark L" , namely , for example whole versus holy . But the is retained when the addition of a suffix turns the "dark L" clear, so that wholly can contrast with holy. Features of working- or middle-class Estuary English, spoken in the counties all around London in the 21st century, include: Not as much h-dropping as Cockney, but still more than RP