I’m guessing people outside news organisations don’t see many press releases. These nuggets of “information” find their way into newsrooms across the country and then a system of churnalism removes errors, writes into English and attempts to turn it into something entertaining or informative.
I thought this one deserved to be seen unadulterated. Let me know what you think.
One Would Rather Talk Like the Queen.
Three quarters of Manchunians don’t like the sound of their own voices.
29th July, 2008. Speech is one of humanity’s greatest gifts – but it has now been revealed that over three quarters of people (77%) from Manchester don’t like the sound of their own voices.
Given the chance to change the way they talk, most Manchunians would prefer to sound like the Queen
And it’s not just in Manchester that people don’t like their own accent. The problem is at its worst in Birmingham. Brum, made famous world-wide by foul mouthed Ozzy Ozbourne, not only tops the league of regions where people dislike their own accents, it is also bottom of the league of voices other Brits would like to exchange for their own. Just two per cent of people from Manchester would choose to speak like a Brummy.
Said Tony Robinson, SpinVox linguistic expert: “It seems Manchester is being gripped by an epidemic of Accent Envy and Accent Self Loathing. After decades where dialect diversity has been celebrated, the majority of Brits now aspire to Received Pronunciation (RP) and to share the sound of their voice not only with The Queen but with celebs like Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant.”
A poll* of more than 2,000 people around Great Britain, by voice-to-content company SpinVox, found that after the Queen’s accent, most people in Manchester would choose an Irish accent, followed by Geordie.
The Manchester twang fares badly with the rest of Great Britain too with only two per cent hankering for the accent.
When it comes to who actually does like the sound of their own voice, the Scots, Geordies and Welsh take the podium positions.
Overall the Queen’s English is the most popular accent in Great Britain.
Tony Robinson continued: “Accents are intricately tied into our own sense of identity. It’s interesting that those with distinct cultural or class identities are more satisfied with the way they speak and it’s precisely those accents that the rest of us want to acquire. The fact is that English as spoken in the UK is incredibly dynamic, precisely because of the regional variations in the way we speak – we are still seeing new words being added to our D2 system’s dictionary at the rate of thousands a week 70% of those words are not even contained in published English Dictionaries.”
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Dim Sum Digital 
“most people in Manchester would choose an Irish accent, followed by Geordie”
Ye Gods and small fishes!
Do not pollsters know when they are having their legs firmly pulled? he asked in his best rhetorical manner.
The result of the survey simply shows that we Mancunians still top the league when it comes to our crazy sense of humour.
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“most people in Manchester would choose an Irish accent, followed by Geordie”
Ye Gods and small fishes!
Do not pollsters know when they are having their legs firmly pulled? he asked in his best rhetorical manner.
The result of the survey simply shows that we Mancunians still top the league when it comes to our crazy sense of humour.
LikeLike
i’m happy with my manc accent thankyou very much. did them stats happen to be randomly pulled out from a hat?
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i’m happy with my manc accent thankyou very much. did them stats happen to be randomly pulled out from a hat?
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i’m happy with my manc accent thankyou very much. did them stats happen to be randomly pulled out from a hat?
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I’m a manc, I’m educated and I have no desire to lose my manchester accent. It’s part of who I am, plus you can say: Stop skriking you myvering melt! And be mistaken for a confused Icelandic tourist in the south of England. Hours of fun.
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I’m a manc, I’m educated and I have no desire to lose my manchester accent. It’s part of who I am, plus you can say: Stop skriking you myvering melt! And be mistaken for a confused Icelandic tourist in the south of England. Hours of fun.
LikeLike
I’m a manc, I’m educated and I have no desire to lose my manchester accent. It’s part of who I am, plus you can say: Stop skriking you myvering melt! And be mistaken for a confused Icelandic tourist in the south of England. Hours of fun.
LikeLike
I am Spanish and I have studied as much as I could related to England and English language and literature.
I absolutely love Mancunian accent. Accents in England are a great way to see how the language has evolved in different parts of the country.
In Spain, I guess as well as in every country, there are very different accents, some of them are so marked that they are difficult to understand. It is exciting learning how and why every accent is the way it is. It says a lot of the evolution of the country and of its roots.
LikeLike
I am Spanish and I have studied as much as I could related to England and English language and literature.
I absolutely love Mancunian accent. Accents in England are a great way to see how the language has evolved in different parts of the country.
In Spain, I guess as well as in every country, there are very different accents, some of them are so marked that they are difficult to understand. It is exciting learning how and why every accent is the way it is. It says a lot of the evolution of the country and of its roots.
LikeLike
I am Spanish and I have studied as much as I could related to England and English language and literature.
I absolutely love Mancunian accent. Accents in England are a great way to see how the language has evolved in different parts of the country.
In Spain, I guess as well as in every country, there are very different accents, some of them are so marked that they are difficult to understand. It is exciting learning how and why every accent is the way it is. It says a lot of the evolution of the country and of its roots.
LikeLike