British accent is more attractive than French, says survey

British accent is voted sexiest in the world, followed by American, Irish, Australian and French:

The British accent is the most attractive in the world, according to an international survey which shows French is no longer considered the language of love.
Britain came out ahead of American, Irish and Australian accents by a generous margin, chosen by 26.7 per cent of respondents. The French accent was relegated to a meagre fifth place (7.7 per cent).
Inhabitants of Sydney, New York and Paris are most likely to fall for a British accent.
However, when it comes to the cities with the best dating scene, London only ranked sixth.
Paris led the way, followed by Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Chicago.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11399001/British-accent-is-more-attractive-than-French-says-survey.html


Lets be honest here as they mean the English accent.

Favorite accent I've ever encountered was a source at the Illinois EPA. She was raised in Ireland but had lived in Chicago for 15 years, and I could listen to her talk all day

Ben_Reilly wrote:Favorite accent I've ever encountered was a source at the Illinois EPA. She was raised in Ireland but had lived in Chicago for 15 years, and I could listen to her talk all day

Sexist accents on women, Irish, Italian then French.

The British accent (London, let's say) is really quite Germanic. Putting aside the aspirated consonant, Brits actually pronounce their hard sounds, such as 't's and 'b's, and so on.

An American will say: 'Ahm udderly famished', slurring the hard sounds.  Americans will also flatten their vowels 'Ahm' vs. 'Aye am'.

A Brit will say: Aye am ut-ter-lee famished, pronouncing each 't' and 'l' with a sharp click of the tongue.

Latin Americans tend to speak Spanish with a soft, musical accent (exception is the staccato Puerto Rican accent) and they favor the slurring.  Many Latin Americans I have run into do not favor the British accent.

I am particularly fond of the British accent...such a precise sound.  Irish accent sounds cute and full of 'sing-song' character...and sexy in bed.  Scottish accent sounds gruff and through the beard...re my stern, Glaswegian grandfather.  



WTF!  Lol.  The Scot speaks with an extreme aspirated consonant.  That is, the hard sounds are often expressed not through the mouth, but by withholding aspiration (breath) with the diaphragm.  London cockneys do this too.  'What do you say' becomes 'wa^ ^ya saa^', closing off the would-be hard sounds with a pull of the diaphragm (^).  Go back to the clip and listen at about 17 to 21, where he speaks a series of aspirated hard sounds.  Also around 31, where he says 'waa^ in', instead of wait-ting.

In order to understand and follow the etymology of words, I had to study a lot of pronunciation for purposes of interpretation of ancient texts.  For example, two authors give us King Arthur, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes, the latter from the French Court of Catherine of France (wife of Henry V).  And you have to match words.  One important character was in Geoffrey's text, but missing in that of Chrétien de Troyes: Sir Lancelot!  But at the wedding scene, Chrétien de Troyes brings in King Angus of Lothian (the Earls of Angus were traditionally the red Douglas clan, but who knows back then).  Study ancient French and you'll find that they always preceded a name with an article (l'angus) and followed it with the suffix 'a-low (lou)' (l'angus-a-low).  Say is quickly ten times and you've found Sir Lancelot.  

Just an example...not swearing this is the case.  However, it is one person's theory that Arthur was a 6th-century Scottish warlord.  http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/fabled-king-arthur-was-a-scottish-warlord-1-3191742

which British Accent? the posh one and the one that sounds like a slightly less drunk Irishman are both pleasing to the ear.

I think in part it maybe because the world has moved on from the age of French power when it was the language of politics, and the world has moved on from Latin in general.
So to the new English speaker the posh one sounds like wealth/class and the Irish like one is just slightly more understandable than a real Irishman.

Rural American is quite nice but don't really like New Yorker or Californian accents (which seem more common on TV).