Winehouse twang on accent blacklist (From Gazette Series)

Winehouse twang on accent blacklist

1:31pm Monday 20th October 2008 in

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The Cockney twangs of Amy Winehouse and David Beckham are the UK's most hated celebrity accents, a survey revealed.

Pipping Prime Minister Gordon Brown's brogue and Colleen Rooney's Liverpudlian lilt to the top spot, the Londoners proved the most unpopular in the poll commissioned by hotel chain Travelodge.

Cockney Lilly Allen joined fellow Londoners in the blacklist along with Charlotte Church's Welsh accent, Ozzy Osbourne's thick Birmingham twang and loud-mouthed Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' Leeds accent.

However, it was better news for the north east, with the Geordie accents of pop singer Cheryl Cole and TV presenters Ant and Dec topping the poll for the nation's favourite celebrity accents.

Other popular regional accents included Bolton comic Peter Kay, Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt and Fife-born presenter Edith Bowman.

The survey also discovered that Britons had a better grasp of foreign languages than with their own regional expressions.

In the survey, more people were able to explain the meaning of wiener (the German word for sausage) and piazza (Spanish for square) than the Liverpudlian word "scran", meaning food, and the Cornish expression "oggies", meaning pies.

Greg Dawson, Travelodge director of communications, said: "Regional accents - whether you love them or hate them - are as diverse as ever in Britain, but it seems we have something of a national communication problem on our hands, as many Brits simply don't understand some of the UK's most loved regional dialects."

The national hotel chain is publishing a Lingo Busting Guide on its website for people to download and brush up on the regional idioms and expressions before heading to its hotels across the UK.