Bond’s alluring burr makes Edinburgh one of best-loved accents
YESH, it is. The Edinburgh accent has been voted among the most attractive in the world thanks to “the Bond effect” – courtesy of Sir Sean Connery, a survey has found.
Researchers asked 1,000 Britons to listen to voice recordings spoken in 20 dialects and rank them on a scale of one to five, based on various positive traits, including attractiveness.
The research, commissioned by the dating site eharmony, found that the Edinburgh accent was the third most alluring (26 per cent) because of its link with the “suave” voice of the former 007 actor.
Born in Fountainbridge, just west of Edinburgh city centre, Sir Sean, 89, played James Bond in the first five films of the spy series, starting with Dr No in 1962. His timbre is now recognised across all age groups as one of coolness, helping to cast the Scottish capital’s dialect in a similarly smooth light internationally, according to researchers.
Rachael Lloyd, a relationship expert at eharmony, told The Daily Telegraph: “No doubt, people mentally heard the phrase ‘Bond, James Bond’ in Sean Connery’s famous burr as they re- sponded. A reason for this popularity is that he is someone who is familiar to all age groups, who know him as the suave, sophisticated ‘original’ Bond, and, as such, link the accent to these qualities. The fact that these universal associations stand the test of time have a significant impact on how people perceive others with the same accent.”
In the study, participants listened to the same 40 texts read by actors in different accents, before ranking the clips for traits such as charm, good humour and intelligence. The sentence read: “In Britain, we can expect rain at any time of the year. While winter is wetter than summer, seasonal differences in rainfall are very small.”
Received pronunciation was seen as the most attractive accent with an average score of 3.34, due to its association with intelligence, followed by the New Zealand accent on 3.06, and Edinburgh was third at 2.91. The Cornish dialect ranked least attractive, with a score of 2.28, although it was rated highly in relation to a good sense of humour. But the distinctive Celtic twang only marginally lost out to Spanish and French, which came 18th and 19th respectively.
Researchers said views on accents are largely shaped by perceptions of famous people speaking with them on TV and in films. They found that just under a quarter of participants were positive about the Geordie dialect because of Ant and Dec’s likeable onscreen personalities.