'Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom'

The article discusses a social experiment carried out to find out whether accents affect the way people perceive one another’s intelligence. “Researchers asked 48 volunteers to look at photos of female models while listening to recordings of women with different accents describing their lives.” The volunteers had to rate the accents on a scale of 10 regarding intelligence. The accents that were being tested were the Yorkshire, Birmingham, RP accents and silence. “While accent did not change perceptions of the models” attractiveness, it had a significant impact on whether or not a particular model was seen as intelligent.” The results of intelligence rating per accent were as following: Yorkshire with 6.71, RP with 6.67, silence with 5.99, and lastly Birmingham with 5.6. Birmingham’s accent significantly scored the lowest in the rating, as well as rated less intelligent as silent.

Rating	Accent	Intelligence rating out of 10
1.	Yorkshire	6.71
2.	RP	6.67
3.	Silence	5.99
4.	Birmingham	5.6

This article relates to the effect that accent or language use has on perception by society. People are often prejudiced by their limited use of language or their dialect. These dialects are often associated with social classes as well as education. The Birmingham accent is ranked lower than silence. The Birmingham accent is associated with regional stereotypes which are in this case with criminal active regions which then is associated with a lower education and intelligence. In Tan’s essay, Tan highlights how her mother’s limited English use resulted in a less important perception by her society. 

Source: Batty, David. "Yorkshire Named Top Twang as Brummie Brogue Comes Bottom." <i>The Guardian</i>. The Guardian, 4 Apr. 2008. Web.