Researchers from the University of Cambridge tested people from around the UK to see how reliably they could separate an imposter accent from the real deal. Belfast, Geordie, and Glaswegian ...

Some can be difficult to distinguish from one another, while others like the more rounded voweled Belfast accent sounds very different from a Dublin accent. When put to the test, people from ...

If that made residents of Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin better at detecting fake accents, the lack of conformity could explain why people from Essex, London, and Bristol are comparatively worse at it.

But the researchers said the results could be partially informed by how accents from Belfast, Glasgow, Dublin and north-east England have culturally evolved over the past several centuries.