The worlds most annoying accent is now a thing to discuss. It seems that the world of social media needs more feed source to dissect, analyze and report. So here we are.
Who would of thought 20 years ago that the Boston accent of your uncle in Revere at Thanksgiving could be the topic of an international survey. But thanks to the internet, push over Ben Affleck, your uncle, or really, his accent is now a star. Add to that these days the stars of the Dunkin commercials is no longer the coffee. It’s our accent.
History Of The Boston Accent
Of course, you can count on me to find a college professor that has discussed and researched this. According to Boston.com, MIT Linguistics Professor Edward Flemming says:
British English accents were rhotic all the way from the Anglo-Saxon period until the 17th Century, when “R” sounds began to “soften,” according to a 2007 study from the University of Pennsylvania.
The “R” and “L” sounds often undergo a process that linguists call vocalization, and this means that the hard consonant sounds gradually “weaken” and begin getting pronounced like vowels, before disappearing entirely.
So what the doc is saying that our (AAH) accent started way before we were born, so it’s not our fault.
Who Owns The Most Annoying Accent? The Stats
Yes, someone actually pays people to study this. A company called Highland Titles did the work for us:
Highland Titles (a company that sells souvenir plots of land in the Scotland Highlands complete with Lord and Lady titles) surveyed 1,000 Americans about their perceptions of different national and foreign accents. Brace yourselves.
Yes it’s true. This survey looks at accents from around the globe and ranked them, from most attractive to least attractive.
In Boston we like being NUMBER ONE at everything. But do we own the worlds most annoying accent? Let’s take a look!
1- Most Attractive: Austrailia
(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
You can thank Thor for making this accent attractive. Chris Hemsworth is from there.
2-Most Attractive-Scottish
(Photo by Kurt Vinion/Getty Images)
It’s easy to see why 1000 Americans feel the Scottish accent is attractive. You can thank Scottish born 007, Sean Connery. It’s fun to remember him saying “Sit Down.” His s is SH. Try it.
3-Most Attractive: London
(Photo by Gerald Matzka/Getty Images)
You can’t do an attractive accent list and leave out London. Much of our exposure to international accents come from movies.
Blame Love Actually.
1-LEAST ATTRACTIVE Accent-New York
(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Congrats New York!! You are number one!! We can thank Larry David’s perfect accent!
