Liverpool accent considered ‘least intelligent’
Who saw Accents Speak Louder on ITV towards the end of last month? 28 per cent of people said they felt discriminated against due to their regional accent – while 80 per cent of employers admitted to making decisions based on the way interview candidates speak. The Tonight programme also found that the Liverpool accent sounds the most unintelligent, while the Devon accent was the friendliest.
Hmm, we can’t help but think this accent stuff must apply to the dating world. I mean, you meet someone online who looks hot, you have great banter over the email and then the time comes to pick up the phone or meet face-to-face – and they have a very strong accent. This can go one of two ways: you can love it and become putty in their hands or it can slightly grate and put you off what looked like it could be a real possibility.
My flatmate has always had a thing for Geordie accents (wa-ay), while one of my friends from Uni couldn’t get enough of the Brummie twang – it was a good job we were at Birmingham as he was spoilt for choice.
There have been various surveys on the matter. One earlier this year by online casino Roxy Palace showed that the Irish accent is the most popular, scoring 28 per cent of the votes, while the least attractive was the Essex accent – made famous by the crew from The Only Way Is Essex, with just one per cent.
The West Country accent came in second with 19 per cent, while the Geordies – made famous by Cheryl Cole and Ant and Dec came in third with 17 per cent. The Birmingham accent came in second from bottom, with only two per cent saying this was their favourite.
Meanwhile in a separate BBC poll back in 2009, the New Zealand accent was rated the most “socially attractive” English accent outside the UK of 34 international varieties of the language. Aussies were way down the list and only came in at 13th place. Yanks had an even poorer showing and ranked 15th.
Hmm, what do you think? Do you agree with these polls? Is an accent a deal-breaker? Tell us
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