Being not a native English-speaker and not familiar with the dialects of the English language, especially the British ones, I'm wondering about an interesting fact for a long time. A British music group, The Prodigy, has released a single Breathe, and there is a lyrics line in the song: "Come play my game". Knowing the English language, I'd read this as [kʌm pleɪ maɪ ɡeɪm], but it's pronounced by the vocalist like [kɒm plaɪ mɔɪ gaɪm] (or something very similar). Another their single Firestarter features lyrics "I'm the pain you tasted" is sang like [aɪm ðə paɪn jə taɪstɪd].
I know that the band is from Essex and the Essex dialect exists, but I really couldn't find much information on it and I'm not really sure if it's true. I've also came across a mention that it also might be relevant to "the Southern English dialect spoken by chavs in London" (found at a non-English lingvo-forum), and I don't know if it's true as well.
What dialect such pronunciation is characteristic of?
Best Answer
I'm not a linguist, but I come from the South East of England. This way of talking is now commonly described as Estuary English.