Learning "plummy" accent ???

Around a year or so back, I came across a rather intrigued survey on BBC News about "Nation's Favourite Accent".

According to the survey, Scottish accent were more acceptable for holding management position, along with nation's strong penchant for "plummy" as of Hugh Grant.

Sean Connery was voted to be nation's favourite accent followed by Hugh Grant.

American accent were also liked, especially as of George Clooney.

Accent that people often disliked were Brummie (Birmingham), some Northern accent along with to my huge disappointment, VERY STRONG regional accent like Midlands having its own setbacks in working life.

This made me delved into ways of losing my rather strong East Midland accent. Once I looked into it, I realised the way to do so, is by having good knowledge of Phonetics & once we get to know the sounds & the way it's produced in particular accent, could be the key to learn that particular accent.

After around a year since then, I seem to losen my original Midland accent &  have achieved neutral accent now.

However, this one year has got me addicted to Phonetics & now, I seem to have strong penchant for a very neutral accent as of RP, something that I'm still working on.

I, however, seem to have developed a rather keen interest in "plummy" accent, as of Hugh Grant.

Now, the problem is, the easy availability of loads of books & materials on Internet had helped me work towards RP (neutral) accent, however, getting to know more about "plummy" accent & it's sound & the way it's produced has VERY LITTLE availability & hence I'm stuck in my research towards it.

I wonder if anyone could possibly point me in the right direction in working towards gaining my much loved Home Counties' "plummy" accent. Perhaps, someone could tell me more about such accent & share their knowledge about it. At the same time, someone might have some resource they could possibly share with me that could help me enlightening myself further.

Lastly, some linguistic (if there's anyone around) would have precise idea about how do I go about achiving this much desired accent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The reason that Scottish (and indeed Irish) accents are often more aceptable to the English than some regional English accents is because the English do not have any associations of any particular social status with any accent, they just think of them as being on a scale of "broadness".

I think that the reason the way Sean Connery and Hugh Grant speak is admired is as much to do with the quality of their voices as their accents.

I have often puzzled why the Birmingham accent should be the least liked. I have known a few people form Birmingham and they have all been reluctant to admit where they come from. This contrasts with Liverpudlians who are always going on about how great Liverpool is, but never go back there.

I do not think that studying phonetics will help you acquire an RP accent any more than studying mechanics and geometry will make you a good snooker player. If you mix with people who speak the way you want to speak you may start to sound like them - it is very much a personal thing. Some people adopt new accents very quickly and others never. What is likely to happen is that some changes will take place so that when you are amongst Southerners they will still think you come from the North (do not forget that the average Southerner cannot tell an East Midlands accent from an accent further north) but that when you go back to the East Midlands people there will think you come from the south.

A thing to remember is that whilst those who speak with an RP accent may be perceived as knowledgeable and reliable, they may also be perceived as more aloof and less friendly.

I'll trade you my southern American accent for whatever you got. I've been trying for years to get rid of it and the best I can do is sound a bit more understandable then the rest of my kin. I still sound like hill folk when I'm not concentrating on correcting my words. I really want an Irish accent (or Scottish or Welsh...hell anything but mine) My heritage is Scottish, but I guess we were bumpkins there too because our family name is Sidhe which I'm told means "from the hill" I guess I'm just destined to speak this way.

If you can't change your speech, change your location. If I drive about two days north of here, everyone I meet thinks my accent is cute; same distance south and people think I sound snooty. If you were here people would love your accent.