BBC Voices

Whilst reading the BBC Voices poll results, I was able to make notes about the research obtained.

• the aim of the research was to find out how people felt about the different languages and accents across the UK.
• 5000 (15+) people took part in the survey.
• the participants were asked to rank celebrities in order of how pleasant their voices sounded.
• Sean Connery was a particular favourite, along with fellow Bond actor Pierce Brosnan.
• some of the most popular were newsreaders, including Moira Stewart and Trevor McDonald.
• some of the least popular were Paul O'Grady, Billy Connolly and even David Beckham.
• people tended to say that they liked the accents that were local to them; such as the Scottish - they liked Ewan McGregor's accent, while people in Northern Island loved the sound of Terry Wogan's voice.
• furthermore, some voted that 'an accent identical to your own' would be their favourite.
• many people enjoy hearing new accents, and the variation of accents.

With these results, I can create a league table of attitudes towards different accents:

1 - Standard English

2 - Scottish

3 - Irish

4 - Newcastle

5 - New Zealand

6 - London

7 - Birmingham

8 - Asian

9 - Liverpool

From all of this information, I can conclude that:

• Edinburgh accents was valued to be both helpful when job-seeking, and also pleasant to listen to.
• However, Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents were the opposite, deemed unpleasant.

• Scottish and Norther Irish participants preferred the Scottish accent the most, but English and Welsh voters decided that the Standard English accent is the best.