Northeners, Scots and Irish better at identifying people mimicking accents than southerners
It wasn’t only Londoners born near a certain church in Bow who grimaced when Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep, Bert, opened his mouth in the 1964 musical, Mary Poppins, an offence for which he apologised more than half a century later.
But if Van Dyke murdered the cockney accent, it seems Londoners, and southerners more broadly, are among the worst at spotting people mimicking their accents, with northerners, Scots and the Irish performing better.
About Author
More Stories
Scientists record seismic tremors from title-clinching Liverpool win over Spurs
Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees vote to create ‘Starbase’
Forget Swedish death cleaning, letting go is hard – even when it’s just a jacket | Nova Weetman