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‘Posh Scottish people are really English’ — why Kelly Macdonald is not alone in judging people by their accents

10 August 2018

In a recent US interview, Trainspotting and Boardwalk Empire star Kelly Macdonald claimed that fellow actress – and Scot – Tilda Swinton was .

Swinton’s vowels are cut glass and her ‘r’s are un-rolled, perhaps leading Macdonald to her ‘posh’ assumption.

Understanding accents

Making personal judgements based on accents is common. Our accents can reveal class and background — and they allow others to project their own biases onto us as soon as we open our mouths.

So what happens in our brains and mouths to make us sound so different from one another, even when we’re speaking the same language?

What do our accents say about us?

Why do we have so many accents?

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