It’s Not What They Say It’s The Way That They Say It

Chiswick's Geordie duo Ant & Dec top poll for most attractive accents

Their accents may not be appreciated or indeed understood in the States but back home Ant & Dec top the list of best male voices.

The poll undertaken by Travelodge revealed how people are fed up with accents they can't understand ranking Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and David Beckham as having the worst voices in the country.

"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," said the hotel chain’s head of communications Greg Dawson.

But it’s not just accents that have us perplexed. "Thousands of new slang words and expressions have flooded into the English language," says John Ayto, co-editor of Stone the Crows a new ‘dictionary’ that aims to educate modern day linguists. "Slang seems to be much more widely accepted these days in society and the media. And the fear of appearing fuddy-duddy has helped the spread of youth slang beyond its original enclaves."

From ladettes to hoodies, shagtastic to minging, and Glasgow kisses to happy slapping, the tome gives a panoramic view of twentieth and twenty-first century slang - from Britain, North America, Australia, and elsewhere in the English-speaking world.

October 23, 2008