Accents that can speak volumes about who we are

After being confirmed as a judge on the US version of The X-Factor, Cheryl Cole has defended her Geordie twang, saying viewers across the pond would get used to it.

Speaking in Los Angeles, ahead of the show’s first auditions, she hit back at critics who said the average American armchair fan might struggle to understand her accent.

“Americans can always understand me. I’ve been here a lot, I’ve got a lot of American friends and we have the odd moments where they’re like ‘What? – what did that mean?’ – you know, a phrase. But I think that it’s going to be something that people get used to. And I’m proud of my accent.”

Even so, question marks over whether viewers will actually understand what she’s saying suggest that prejudice about the way people speak hasn’t gone away. In the past, anyone wanting to be a TV presenter needed to speak with a plum English accent, or Received Pronunciation (RP) to give it its proper title.

Of course, most people didn’t talk like that and gradually this has been replaced on TV and radio by an array of regional accents – from the West Country burr to the unmistakable Mersey brogue – with the likes of Ant and Dec, Adrian Chiles, Christine Bleakley and newsreader Huw Edwards having all made a virtue of their distinctive tones.

Caroline Goyder, voice expert and author of The Star Qualities, a practical guide to public speaking, says attitudes have changed. “Thirty years ago if you were an actor from the North East you were told to learn RP which made everyone sound the same. These days people are still encouraged to speak like this so they can do Shakespeare, but they’re told to keep their accents because that’s what makes them different.”

Goyder applauds Cheryl Cole’s defence of her accent. “Some Americans might not understand her because they’re not used to hearing that kind of accent, but if they like her they will adapt to the way she speaks.”

She also points out there’s a distinction between dialect and accents. “A dialect uses different words, whereas an accent is about pronounciation. So if Cheryl Cole starts using words like ‘canny’ or ‘bairn’ then she’s going to have problems because American viewers won’t have a clue what she’s talking about because dialects can be like another language.” This was the case with the film Trainspotting which had to have subtitles when it was released in the US because the Scots accents were so strong.

Our perceptions are influenced by people’s accents, too. A study three years ago by scientists at Bath Spa University found that Brummie accents were seen as the least intelligent, while a Yorkshire lilt was most strongly associated with wisdom and intellect.

“A lot of call centres were set up in the North East, Scotland and Yorkshire because people there come across as honest and trustworthy, so there’s a cultural stereotype linked to accents. We all make judgments about people and someone’s accent is one of the things we hang our judgements on,” says Goyder.

“Brummie accents are uplifting in tone but that has the effect of sounding a bit uncertain and that can make someone sound less credible.”

Clive Upton, Professor of Modern English Language at Leeds University, says contrary to popular belief, accents and dialects aren’t disappearing. “There’s been suggestions that they are dying out and that’s not true. If anything the variations of English accents around the world is increasing,” he says.

“Although most of us are regionally identifiable we also have a range of accents we carry around in our kit bag that we use as tools in certain situations, either to fit in, or to make other people feel more comfortable.”

Speaking with a neutral accent can make you indistinguishable from others. “A lot of the time you can’t tell who you’re listening to unless it’s someone rather posh like the art critic Brian Sewell, who has a very distinctive and mannered way of speaking.

“People who just have one accent that doesn’t change can work against them in social situations, because it can be mocked. If someone on a bus sees a youth with his feet on the seat and says, ‘excuse me young man’, they will get a different reaction to a bloke who says, ‘shift your feet, mate’.”

Some, though, turn the way they speak to their advantage. “You have someone like Michael Parkinson who makes a virtue of his Yorkshire accent and people recognise him because of the way he speaks, it’s part of his personality.

“So you can say our accents are who we are, they set us apart.”

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