"Brummies should keep their mouths shut, says professor"

[dutchman]

New research has revealed that our Birmingham pals from down the M6 may be better not speaking.



An academic is arguing that the Birmingham native's accent - often known as Brummie - is seen as less intelligent and less attractive by many, and that even silence is preferable to the nasal Birmingham twang.

This has caused the professor, Lance Workman, to suggest that Brummies should keep their mouth shut rather than talk.

The University of South Wales professor, who conducted an experiment pairing accented voices with faces, asked people to rate the attractiveness of accents.

He says: "We asked people to rate how attractive and how intelligent a young woman was when reading a passage in Brummie, a Yorkshire accent and the Queen’s English.

“We also added a silent condition where participants saw the face but did not hear any dialogue.

“We randomised faces with accents in order to control for differences between faces. The results suggested that, while regional accents do not have an effect on the perceived attractiveness of the speaker, they do have a significant effect on perceived level of intelligence."

People ranked the Yorkshire accent as the most intelligent, with the Queen's English - also known as "received pronunciation - surprisingly lagging behind in second. Silence was third.

The fourth and final entry was the Birmingham accent.

Workman says: “The findings raise two questions. Why was the Yorkshire accent rated most highly? And why was the Birmingham one rated even lower than the silent condition?”

The academic went on to suggest that the Brummie accent may hamper your chances of getting a job in top positions.

[rebbonk]

Strangely enough I have a strong Coventry accent. If I travel very far people seem to think I'm a Brummie!