'˜Scottish' voted best regional accent in UK

Scottish people's distinctive way of speaking has been voted the best accent in the UK, according to a new poll across the country.

Respondents across the UK were asked which regional accent they found the most attractive, with 15 per cent of respondents agreeing that Scottish is the most appealing.

George and the “Queen’s English” were tied in second place, while the least attractive accents were revealed to be Brummie and Mancunian, from the English cities of Birmingham and Manchester respectively.

The poll, commissioned by call forwarding provider TollFreeForwarding.com also found that British was considered the worldwide accent preferred by respondents, ahead of Irish and French.

The data was used to quiz the public on how their preferred choice would affect the chances of them speaking to a salesperson, with over half of people saying they would talk to someone trying to sell something if that person had their preferred accent.

Business psychologist Kim Stephenson from TamingThePound.com explained that accents are connected to a person’s status, with received pronounciation (RP) typically associated with competence.

He said: ““If you go to an accountant with a ‘low status accent’ you probably won’t believe he’s good enough, but an RP accountant is obviously competent. So, if you’re talking about things like newsreaders, call centres etc, it helps to have high status people.”