BBC Voices

Aims

The aim of the poll was to find out how people across the British Isles feel about various accents.  5000 people took part in the poll.  

Methodology

The survey was conducted by Greenfield Online and carried out between the 17^th and 26^th of November. There was a total of 5010 respondents who were all 15+, with a male to female ration of 49:51. However, the 25-64 age bracket was overrepresented, leaving the 15-25 and 64+ underrepresented. The survey also represented respondents across 63 identified areas. No social class data was collected during the survey. 97% of the respondents said English was their first language, 27% saying they spoke another language besides English.   

Findings and Analysis

When asked about celebrity voices, respondents favoured the Edinburgh accent of Sean Connery. Other popular accents where that of newsreaders Trevor McDonald and Moira Stewart. Pierce Brosnan was also quite highly ranked. Ian Paisley’s accent was ranked the “least pleasant” by the majority of respondents, the Northern Irish being the exception. Respondents typically favoured accents that were local to them.  

In response to their own accents, 59% of respondents said they occasionally wished they had a different accent. The most popular choice being a Standard English accent, thought Southern Irish accents were also considered desirable. However, generally the favourite accent seemed to be one “identical to their own”. Respondents in Northern Ireland (95%), Wales (79%) and Scotland (87%) identified as having a stronger accent than those in the eastern and southern regions of England. Over four out of five people admit to changing their accent in certain situations, for example when meeting new people.  

Attitudes towards accents are largely positive, 78% of respondents claiming they enjoy hearing a variety of accents. There seems to be a close link between pleasantness and prestige in regard to accents, Edinburgh rating highly on both accounts. Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents were considered both unpleasant and lacking in status. The two main exceptions to the rule would be the London accent, being deemed advantageous career-wise but not favourable to listen to; and the Newcastle accent, which was considered pleasant but not prestigious.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the poll shows that people across the UK most enjoy accents local to their own. Reflecting this, overall Northern Ireland and Scotland preferred and Scottish accent, however Wales and England favoured RP.

Evaluation

Whilst conducted and published by reliable sources, there are many ways in which this survey is flawed. The most immediate problem is the representation of respondents across different age brackets. There might also be bias created by the use of celebrities as accent models, respondents favouring the celebrity and therefore favouring their accent. However, in terms of gender ratio, the survey was very fair. The inclusion of younger generations (15+), despite their underrepresentation, also makes the survey reliable.