51 Percent of Californians Love Their Accent; the Nation Ranks It Fifth-best.

Americans love their accents but wouldn't mind Queen of England's stately
tongue.

ATLANTA, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The way we talk says so much about who we
are, where we come from, and sometimes dictates how we're treated. But it
turns out that despite this Americans with a California accent just aren't
that hung up over the sound of their own voices.
A poll commissioned by voice-to-content leader SpinVox and conducted by
Harris Interactive(R) found 51 percent of citizens with a California accent
are happy with how their particular regional accent sounds in comparison with
other American accents. Only one percent of them reported they aren't fond of
the way they talk while 48 percent expressed neutrality on the matter.
The nation at large ranked the California accent fifth-best.
Nationwide, 47 percent of Americans are happy with their accents. Only
five percent reported to dislike their accents when compared to those from
other regions in the U.S.
U.S. adults were significantly more enthused by the prospect of adopting a
non-American English accent with 36 percent reporting they would like to speak
like the Queen of England. The Australian and Irish accents of Hugh Jackman
and Bono also proved popular, ranking second and third respectively.
If pushed on their preferences for alternative American accents, U.S.
citizens nationwide most favor the "General American" accent, which is
considered to be devoid of any regional attributes, and is exemplified by
retired broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite. Americans would then choose
Reese Witherspoon's Southern drawl over other domestic accents -- just as some
U.S. presidential candidates have done while campaigning in the region for
local appeal. Conversely, the New Jersey/New York dialect (as exemplified by
James Gandolfini in his role as Tony Soprano) was most often selected as the
accent Americans would least like to have themselves.
"In an increasingly homogenized society, speech remains one of the few
things we're able to use to differentiate ourselves," said director of the
Advanced Speech Group at SpinVox, Tony Robinson. "Considering accent
indicates geographical origin and is a powerful expression of self, it's
interesting to note how half of Americans take great pride in how they talk,
and the other half places little value on regional accent as a social and
cultural hallmark. The American attitudes on accent are interesting when
compared to English accents in Britain, for example, where there are much
bigger shifts in dialects across much shorter distances."
The findings contrasted sharply with a similar poll commissioned by
SpinVox and conducted by YOUGov in the UK where 75 percent of Brits admitted
to some measure of 'accent envy', claiming they would like to speak with an
accent that is different to their own, with their Queen's English proving the
most popular choice.
At 64 percent, U.S. Southerners were most appreciative of their own
accents.
"We've been looking at attitudes toward accent for sometime, and we're
amazed how divided individuals in different countries are toward the way they
speak," concluded Tony Robinson.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris
Interactive on behalf of SpinVox between August 11-13, 2008 among 2,151 U.S.
adults age 18+. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated;
a full methodology is available.
About SpinVox
SpinVox(R) brought together the two most popular methods of communication
-- voice and text -- and created a new category of messaging called
Voice-to-Screen(TM). Its award-winning service is now making everyday
communication simpler and more powerful, creating new recurring revenues for
wireless, landline, cable and VOIP carriers as well as service providers and
web partners. SpinVox has already launched its service with Alltel,
Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa,
Vodafone Spain and Livejournal and announced a deal with Skype. As a managed
service provider any network or service can rapidly and cost-effectively
implement SpinVox.
At the heart of SpinVox is its Voice Message Conversion System(TM) (VMCS),
which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a
live-learning language process. VMCS is now being rolled-out across five
continents in English, French, Spanish and German - with a fifth language,
Portuguese, under development.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a
long and rich history in multimodal research that is powered by our science
and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris
Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and
Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more
information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
SOURCE SpinVox

Crisel Ortiz, +1-415-989-9000, crisel@msrcommunications.com, or Chris Blake,
+1-818-585-0255, chris@msrcommunications.com, both of MSR Communications, for
SpinVox