Proud Geordies, Scousers and Glaswegians beware. Accents from all the corners of Britain are under threat from the rising popularity of personal digital assistants, according to new research.

People with strong regional twangs and lilts are finding themselves reverting to received pronunciation when talking to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google in order to be better understood, according to a report from the Life Science Centre in Newcastle.

It claims nearly four fifths of speakers with regional accents say they deliberately adjust the way they speak in order to prevent hiccups when using voice recognition systems.

Smart speakers such as Amazon's Echo have surged in popularity in recent months, becoming a regular fixture in homes around the UK. A recent Ofcom report estimated that 13pc of households now have a smart speaker.

Artificial intelligence voice assistants in the speakers, such as Alexa, can listen out for questions or requests. Speaking the wake word "Alexa" will launch the speaker, which can be asked to read the news, make a purchase online, play music or answer a question.