The Birmingham accent is apparently now the best in the Midlands
If it is good enough for Tommy Shelby… the Birmingham accent is apparently now the best in the Midlands(Image: BBC)
Brummies have known the deal when it comes to accents for generations.
Someone will rank all the accents in the British Isles and dead last will be ours – its standard stuff.
Well, maybe feasting time is over as a new report on the nation’s top accents not only has Brummie in the top half – it’s even the top for the entire Midlands.
Read more: 50 Brummie and Black Country sayings
Conducted by specialists at online language platform Preply, accents received assessment on clarity and attractiveness. Four Scottish accents received particular attention in the study, which utilised public surveys alongside AI technology.
While the Brummie accent has been derided for generations, it’s been having something of a global renaissance of late.
The international success of Peaky Blinders – in which the character with the Brummie accent tends to be the cool one on screen – may have helped with this.
It’s still nowhere near the top – Southern Irish takes that mantle – but is named ahead of the likes of Nottingham, Leicester and Stoke-on-Trent, nearby.
It still, of course, doesn’t really matter what other people think about how you speak, but nice not to be bottom, we guess.
According to Preply’s findings, accents tend to be considered more attractive when they demonstrate characteristics like smooth rhythm and tuneful intonation.
Those which embody their region’s distinctive traits also prove more appealing.
According to Preply, dialects with strong linguistic features can be more challenging to comprehend and are generally less appealing.
The experts also discovered that accents associated with certain negative stereotypes tend not to be as desirable.
From most to least desirable accents in the British Isles.
- Southern Irish
- Queen’s English / Received Pronunciation
- Edinburgh
- Geordie
- Mancunian
- Yorkshire
- Cockney
- Essex
- Scouse
- Cardiff
- Northern Irish
- Glaswegian
- Lancashire
- Sheffield
- Estuary English
- Norfolk
- Kentish
- Highlands
- Somerset
- Durham
- Brummie
- Wolverhampton
- Bristolian
- West Country
- Cornish
- Salford
- Leicester
- Hampshire
- Devon
- Coventry
- Nottingham
- Bolton
- Preston
- Crawley
- Norwich
- Sunderland
- Bradford
- Middlesbrough
- Northumberland
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Hebridean
- Multicultural London English (MLE)
- Gloucestershire
- Cheshire
- Hull City
- West and South-West Irish
- Cumbrian
- Surrey
- East Anglian
- Manx