BBC Voices 2004

Aims and Methodology:

The BBC commissioned a poll to find out how people feel about accents and languages in the British Isles. 5000 people took part in the online poll in which they had to rank celebrities in order of how pleasant their voices were.

Findings and Analysis:

• Sean Connery's Edinburgh accent won by an overwhelming amount as his voice was consistently rated as the most pleasant throughout the UK. Similarly, 'Bond' actor Pierce Brosnan was also high on the list - born in Ireland, raised in England and has spent 20 years in the USA. However Trevor McDonald came second overall with his authoritative Trinidad-born accent.

• Ian Paisley was voted least pleasant in all areas of the UK apart from Northern Ireland. Furthermore; David Beckham, Billy Connolly, Cilla Black and Paul O'Grady's were also given the thumbs down.

• Throughout the country, people voted "an accent identical to your own" as one of their favourite accents, and in most places, voters considered their own accent to be prestigious or helpful for getting a job.

• 95% of people in Northern Ireland, 79% in Wales and 87% in Scotland think of themselves as having at least a moderately strong accent. Only 63% in the east of England and 64% in the south think their accent is moderately strong. Generally people in the north and west of the UK identify with "having an accent" more than those in the south-east.

• More than 4 in 5 admit to changing their accent on occasions such as meeting people for the first time or talking to more senior work colleagues. A Yorkshire participant also claimed their accent got a lot stronger when they were drunk.
• Three quarters of people in the UK think they hear a lot more accents in everyday life and on BBC TV and radio than they used to, and 78% enjoy hearing a variety of accents.
• In general there was a close link between pleasantness and prestige: an Edinburgh accent was valued highly on both counts, while Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents were all deemed both unpleasant to listen to and lacking in social status.
• However, a London accent was thought to be helpful in business and jobs but people did not find it nice to listen to. Conversely, respondents liked the sound of Newcastle accents but did not think they were very prestigious or useful when job-hunting.

• It was thought that a Standard English accent would be more beneficial when applying for jobs
• Although the Queen's English beat other accents hands down in the prestige stakes, it was
   thought that a Standard English accent would be more beneficial when applying for jobs. The majority of those questioned liked the Queen's voice, but preferred Southern Irish, Scottish and New Zealand accents.
• Scottish and Northern Irish respondents liked Scottish accents best of all, but English and Welsh voters put the Standard English accent out on top.
• 56% of people who took part in the poll believe that speaking more than one language is helpful in getting a good job in the British Isles.
• Over two-thirds of respondents claimed that they hear more languages than they used to, but 22% said that they dislike hearing languages other than English. A fifth believe that in general we have become less tolerant of hearing a variety of languages.
• In Wales, where English and Welsh are legally equal, bilingualism was seen as even more of a benefit than in the rest of the UK. Two-thirds of those who took part in the poll in Wales believe that a second language is helpful when it comes to getting a good job. Just 16% of Welsh respondents said they did not like hearing languages other than English.
• The vast majority of multilingual respondents in the UK (84%) are glad they can speak languages other than English.

Conclusions:

Respondents had a preference for accents relatively local to them (Scots loved Ewan McGregor's Perthshire accent, the English liked Hugh Grant's voice, the Welsh preferred Richard Burton and the Northern Irish preferred Terry Wogan's voice.

59% of participants wished occasionally that they had a different accent, believing it would make them sound more pleasant and so others could understand them better.  Most people wished for Standard English and 12% wished for a Southern Irish accent. 2/3 of people in Northern Ireland wanted a different accent with 12% wanting a Southern Irish accent. People admit to changing their accent depending on the situation.

People thought a more Standard-English accent was helpful in getting jobs but wasn't as pleasant to listen to as accents such as Welsh and Geordie are.