Too much TV can make you sound like Dot Cotton: Viewers pick up accents when they have an emotional attachment to soap stars Glaswegian viewers of Eastenders have picked features of a London accent This includes replacing TH with an F in words such as think and tooth This is the first study to show that accents can change if viewers regularly watch and engage with a soap Watching television can change people's regional accents, a new study suggests. Experts have for the first time shown that "active and engaged television viewing" does help to speed up a change in language. The study looked at how watching the television soap EastEnders is altering certain features of the Scottish accent. Experts have for the first time shown that 'active and engaged television viewing' does help to speed up a change in language. Language experts at the University of Glasgow found two particular features of pronunciation typically associated with London English that were becoming increasingly apparent in the Glaswegian dialect among people who regularly watched the television soap opera. 'Our study shows that the programmes that we watch on television can help to accelerate changes in aspects of language which are also well below the level of conscious awareness,' said study leader Jane Stuart-Smith, professor of phonetics at the University of Glasgow, In particular, this study was investigating why certain linguistic factors that are normally found within the Cockney dialect in London were gradually entering into Glaswegian. In particular, it looked at why certain linguistic factors that are normally found within the Cockney dialect in London were gradually entering into Glaswegian Although this trend was apparent in people who had contact with friends or family living in London, there was a stronger effect for people who had strong psychological engagement with characters in EastEnders Although this trend was apparent in people who had contact with friends or family living in London, there was a stronger effect for people who had strong psychological engagement with characters in EastEnders. The study warned that Scottish viewers accents and dialect can be altered by watching Eastenders, but what words are particularly affected. Scots would imitate the likes of hard man Phil Mitchell by saying "f" instead of "th," while "l-vocalisation" has also been adopted, in which the "l" sound in certain words is dropped. For instance: For instance, people would replace the letters TH with an F in words such as think and tooth. The results show significant correlations between using these features with strong emotional and psychological engagement by the viewers of this programme. However, the study also concluded that simply being exposed to television is not sufficient to cause accent change; for someone's speech to alter, they need to regularly watch the show and become emotionally engaged with the characters. The authors caution that television and other forms of popular media constitute only one of many factors that help accelerate language change and other, more powerful factors, such as social interaction between peers has a much stronger effect on language change in this study. Professor Stuart-Smith added: 'We don't properly understand the mechanisms behind these changes, but we do see that the impact of the media is weaker than that of actual social interaction. We need many more studies of this kind in order to appreciate properly the influence of television and other popular media on language change. The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, was published in the science journal Language.