Dr Lauren Hall-Lew, a lecturer in sociolinguistics, talks about her research into tourist attitudes to Scottish accents.

Lauren and her team hit the streets of Edinburgh during a recent Edinburgh Festival Fringe to quiz tourists about their attitudes to Scottish accents in different contexts.

Can we think of accents as a commodity like shortbread or tartan? 
Does authenticity matters to tourists, even if it means they can’t understand what someone is saying?