SCOTS are among the best in the UK at spotting fake accents, with those in the south of England the worst, according to a new study.
In a test by the University of Cambridge, people from Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, and the north east of England performed better at detecting a person's accent, real or imitated, than those from the south of England.
Around 50 people were recruited from regions across the UK.
Experts then recorded participants repeating sentences in their own accent, including ‘‘Hold up those two cooked tea bags”; “She kicked the goose hard with her foot”; “He thought a bath would make him happy”; “Jenny told him to face up to his weight”; and, “Kit strutted across the room”.
Participants were then asked to imitate six other accents they did not naturally speak and asked to determine which accents were authentic.
The findings, published in a study in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences, argue strong cultural identities in areas which performed better may mean residents keep an eye out for outsiders and are alert to other cultures.
Study co-author and University of Cambridge postdoctoral researcher Jonathan R. Goodman said: “Cultural, political, or even violent conflict are likely to encourage people to strengthen their accents as they try to maintain social cohesion through cultural homogeneity.
“Even relatively mild tension, for example the intrusion of tourists in the summer, could have this effect.”
“We found a pretty pronounced difference in accent cheater detection between these areas.
“We think that the ability to detect fake accents is linked to an area’s cultural homogeneity, the degree to which its people hold similar cultural values.”
He added: “The UK is a really interesting place to study. The linguistic diversity and cultural history is so rich and you have so many cultural groups that have been roughly in the same location for a really long time.
“Very specific differences in language, dialect and accents have emerged over time, and that’s a fascinating side of language evolution.”
