Ready for some state pride today? Distinguished members of our reading audience, we are asking those of you who live the United States to keep it light as you read through some recent survey results.
Big Seven Travel polled 1.5 million members of their social media audience to see which American accents are the sexiest, ranked from 1 to 50. As you know, traversing the country will bring you into contact with a variety of different regional dialects, inflections, twangs, and slang.
Thanks to television and movies, some are more recognizable than others. According to this poll, some are more appealing than others. We are going to highlight the top ten sexiest accents from Big Seven’s survey but let’s just clear up who made number 50 (the least sexy): Long Island, New York.
Let us begin.
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California
Several California accents made this list, but the generic one where there is no distinct accent heard is what ranks at number 10. What are its qualities? It lacks the surfer dude vowel stretch and the emphatic intonations of the valley girl accent and is described as “smooth.” However, vowel pronunciations may differ.
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St. Louis
The St. Louis (Missouri) accent has been compared to that of Midwestern cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis. and Columbus. According to CityLabs, generational accents may differ in this town, but you are bound to hear “farty” instead of “forty” or “hay-end” instead of “hand.”
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Philadelphia
I grew up right outside of Philly and can recognize the accent a mile away. It is true that water can be “wooder,” street could sound like “shtreet,” and anything spelled with “-err” in the middle sounds like “-urr”. Case in point: That’s turrible!
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Hawaiian
Big Seven described this one as being relaxed with “elongated words.” Everything sounds good in this paradise, but it makes us feel bad for Florida – another vacation hot spot – who only made it to number 44.
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Mississippi
This is a great example of a classic Southern accent that’s deep and thick, but still with a soft, gentle quality to it. Theater is thee-ay-ter. Lawyer is law-Yer, with an emphasis on two separate syllables. Address is “add-dress.”
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Chicago
This Great Lakes city carries more than one accent depending on who you talk to, but according to Big Seven, “Words like ‘but’ and ‘cut’ sound a bit more like ‘bought’ and ‘caught.’” You can also check out an episode of Shameless and listen to Fiona Gallagher to get an idea of Southside dialect.
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Maine
At the top of New England, you’ll hear Maine folks pronounce words where the “r” pretty much disappears from the ends of words. However, you may hear an “r” added to the ends of words ending in “a,” as in “Americar” or “idear.” And the word wicked is a regularly used adjective that amplifies everything.
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New York
Your standard New York accent is heavily imitated, celebrated, and the number two sexiest. It’s described as fast and famous with long vowel sounds and “aw” injected into the pronunciation of words like “talk” (tawk), “call” (caawl), and “coffee” (cawfee). Bow-chicka-wow-wow!
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Boston
Another easily recognizable accent, the Bostonian is original. Though this one is number two, the reaction on social media is full of jokes. People are wondering how the rough and “ah” filled dialect of Boston made it this high up the sexy list, but alas, somebodies in this survey find it attractive. Somehow, this beat New Jersey who ranked at 49.
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Texas
In a league of its own, the Texas drawl snagged the number one spot. If y’all don’t understand why, it’s because people like the charming sound of the hard “r” and how the letter “i” becomes an “aah” sound in certain words. At least we thaaank so. You klurr on that? Go Texas!
If you’re wondering who scored low on this survey, Minnesota, Alaska, and the California Valley accents are all in the bottom 5. The “general American” accent is not very sexy sitting at 32, right below Atlanta. To see the full rankings, visit the Big Seven Travel site here.
Where does your accent land in this survey? Which of these do you strongly disagree with? Which accents are the sexiest to you?