Bishop Donna-Louis wonders if we should pay attention when the new survey of accents of the beloved British Isles excludes East Anglia

When the Brahmins expressed sympathy and the Irish seceded, the people of East Anglia felt utterly crude.

There has been a lot of discussion online in recent days following the resurgence of a survey evaluating the attractiveness of the British Isles accents. The Republic of Ireland named Birmingham the most attractive and least attractive city.

But the East Anglian accent was evident in its absence, as it was completely ignored by YouGov Pollasters, who did research in early 2014.

This week, the company highlighted the results on its Twitter account, raising eyebrows at the absence of East Anglia.

But Prof Peter Trudeau, a local linguist and chairman of the Friends of Norfolk Dialogue (Font), said he was grateful the poll did not show the region what it called “gossip.”

He said such polls could lead to linguistic prejudice and discrimination known as linguistics.

“I think it’s not a good idea to ask people to rate the quality of accents,” he said.

“We are trying to eliminate racism and gender discrimination, but people still believe that it is right to judge people by the way they speak. That is the language. I think the whole exercise was very bad and poorly designed. ”

Linguistics is a form of prejudice against individuals or groups that has clear prejudices about others based on the way they speak.

Professor Trudeau also explored how people of different generations can relate different meanings to certain pronunciations.

“Accents are not inherently attractive, beautiful, elegant or ugly, they are just that. Often people with these accents can form an opinion.

“It was a stupid exercise, so I’m glad we did not attend.

“All the accents are good, they are all beautiful, they are all attractive, but do not encourage people to think otherwise. ”

Great Britain is very special in its linguistic variation. The East Anglian dialect contains different accents and is not consistent throughout the county.

It was interspersed across the county borders, and spoke much less clearly and purely than at its peak, especially in Broad Norfolk.

The East Anglian accent does not have a high national profile like some other local variations.

Alan Smetherst, a pop star and singer-songwriter in his sixties, is one of the few local personalities to become a national figure known for his Norfolk accent.

The folk singer and postman wrote his new self – composed song “Have You Got Lloyd, Boy?” In 1966 he received the Ivor Novello Award.

However, recent media attention to Norfolk and Suffolk has increased in connection with productions such as the Kingdom with Stephen Fry television series based on Sutton Who’s real life story, and the Netflix film The Dig. .

While Kingdom received negative feedback for its portrayal of the Norfolk accent, The Dig actor Ralph Fiennes praised the portrayal of the Suffolk language, which he spent months improving.

“Norfolk and Suffolk, we’re together on the emphasis,” added Professor Trudeau.

“Phineas did a good job, the writer did a good job, and it was great. Because we’re so under the radar, the actors are not often upset, but he’s upset. Sometimes they do not even try to be like us because they do not know we exist.

“Phineas was well-trained, he toured pubs in Suffolk, talked to people and got into rhythm. It was very well done and it was welcome. ”

The Focus poll was first published on the YouGov website in December 2014 and recently re-shared via the International Research Analysis Group’s social media platform. The selected 12 accents were selected for a “quick scan” of the English language variants using the free online Wikipedia encyclopedia.

Professor Peter Trudeau is the author of the recent East Anglian English. He is an Honorary Professor of Social Linguistics at the University of East Anglia and an Emeritus Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Freiburg, Switzerland.

YouGov Results …

Voters asked people if they thought the accents were appealing or not. Here are the total scores:

Southern Irish: 42

Pronunciation received: 31

Galois: 20

Yorkshire: 15

Western countries: 13

George: 10

Northern Ireland: 5

Glasgow: -29

Cockney: -30

Manchester: -31

No .: -33

Brown: -53