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Celebrity voices
 Respondents
in South England voted these people as having the most pleasant voices
(in descending order):
 1.
Sean Connery
 2.
Trevor McDonald
 3.
Terry Wogan
 4.
Moira Stewart
 5.
Hugh Grant
Respondents
in South England voted these people as having the least pleasant voices:
 1.
Ian Paisley
 2.
Billy Connolly
 3.
Janet Street-Porter
 4.
Cilla Black
 5.
Jasper Carrott
Accents
of English
64%
of South England respondents think of themselves as having at least a
moderately strong accent. 7% say they have no accent at all and 4% said
they had a very strong accent.
18%
of respondents in South England say they don't like their accent and 25%
say they're not proud of their accent, above the UK average of 17%. About
half of respondents do like their accents (51%) and are proud of their
accent (49%).
According
to the majority of South England respondents (77%) the variety of accents
they hear in everyday life is increasing and 76% say they like hearing
this variety. Although 21% said they thought that, generally speaking,
we are becoming less tolerant of this diversity. 41% of respondents agreed
that regional accents are becoming less distinct as some language research
suggests but (35%) disagreed with this statement.
62%
of South England respondents think that British English is becoming more
Americanised. 17% disagreed that this was the case and 21% neither agreed
or disagreed.
56%
of respondents from South England wish at least occasionally they had
another accent. The most-wished for accent was a Standard English accent,
but 8% said they'd like to have a Southern Irish accent, 6% a Welsh accent
and 5% a Scottish accent. The main reason people would like to change
their accent is that it sounded more pleasant than their own accents.
81%
say that who they are speaking to can cause them to change their accent,
with 38% of those admitting that they change their accent when they meet
people for the first time. The main reasons respondents do this is to
ensure that they are understood more clearly and to fit in better socially.
Some
comments used by South England respondents to describe their accents included:
- "Southern - pronounce bath & path -bar-th, par-th etc. Not
very posh - don't pronounce the H in why, or pronouce hello "hair-lair"
etc."
- "Boring, one tone and dull. There is no real region definition
to it apart from Southern."
- "I feel that because my accent is very london/south coast i am
judged as being a 'common' person."
- "Southampton trashy dialect - a cross between "oo-arr"
country accent and cockney."
- "Very slightly between a Hampshire Hog and a Country Bumkin."
Languages
other than English
57%
of South England respondents think that speaking another language is a
bonus when it comes to getting a good job, but 21% don't think being multilingual
is an advantage. Although most people say they hear more languages around
them nowadays than previously, 23% say they don't like hearing languages
other than English. 21% think that in general we are becoming less tolerant
of hearing languages other than English.
South England opinions on accents
South
England respondents voted the Standard accent of English as their most
pleasant accent and the accent most likely to help you obtain a good job.
The Queen's English was voted the most prestigious accent. After respondents'
own accents, the Southern Irish accent was their next most pleasant accent,
followed by the New Zealand accent, the Queen's English and Edinburgh
accents, which outranked a list of nearly 20 other UK accents and 10 other
accents of English from around the world.
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