Brit Opinions on Amercian Accents

[Ben]

Brits think New York accents are the sexiest, and Boston accents sound the most intelligent.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2015/10/20/brits-think-this-american-accent-is-sexiest/?intcmp=hpff

[mtnbkr]

I'll have to run this by some of my coworkers in the UK. :)

Chris

[Ben]

I'll have to run this by some of my coworkers in the UK. :)

Chris

Please do. I am skeptical on both of them. 

[vaskidmark]

Which gives me an opportunity for another meaningless rant -

What's up with ads for American products being presented by some female with a Brit accent?  Seriously, does it make stuff from a place like this http://www.rossstores.com/ any more sophisticated?

stay safe.

[mtnbkr]

Because I work for a British company and hear Brit accents all the damn time, the accent no longer sounds exotic to me, but I suppose that's why it gets used as an advertising tactic.

BTW, I spent a week working in a small town in southern England a few years ago.  I was on site with a customer, a large British "building society" (like a credit union), so I had virtually no exposure to Americans or their accents except over the phone when talking to coworkers back home.  After the work week was over, I spent the weekend in London sightseeing.  I was walking down a busy street in London Saturday afternoon and overheard some Americans talking behind me, the first I had heard not via phone all week.  Their accents were jarring to my ears (prob midwest or mid atlantic).  I remember thinking "this is what we sound like?".

Chris

[lee n. field]

Brits think New York accents are the sexiest, and Boston accents sound the most intelligent.

I find the NE accents nasal and annoying.

[Hawkmoon]

I find the NE accents nasal and annoying.

Don't confuse a Boston accent with a New England accent. A native of Boston sounds very different from a native of, say, Bangor ("Ban'-go-ah"), Maine. Rhode Island is different from both.

In college, I took a one-semester (or maybe one year, don't recall) course in linguistics. About the only thing I remember from that course is the factoid that if a trained linguist studies someone who has not traveled extensively or moved from their birth location, the linguist can determine to within about a 25-mile radius where that person is from. I see that just around where I currently live (which is many states removed from where I was born). There's a small-ish river that runs through a series of small towns that are collectively known as "the valley." Kids from the valley towns (for some reason, especially females from the more southern of the valley towns) are immediately pegged for location by their accents.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I agree with Lee.

My Grandmother was from Boston and that whole side of my family has a blend of Connecticut and Boston. Even I slip into it sometimes, and it's nasal and annoying.

I wish they had done a larger study and took into account social class, especially dealing with Brits, because there is a huge difference, even now, between upper class accents and lower ones in the northeast and the south (and probably elsewhere, but I wouldn't know the difference) It would be interesting to see the responce to that.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Don't confuse a Boston accent with a New England accent. A native of Boston sounds very different from a native of, say, Bangor ("Ban'-go-ah"), Maine.

Connecticut, all on it's own, is annoying sounding to this Virginian, so I wouldn't be so sure about how much a difference it really makes.

[Hawkmoon]

Connecticut, all on it's own, is annoying sounding to this Virginian, so I wouldn't be so sure about how much a difference it really makes.

Dissimilar accents can be equally annoying, I suppose.

I went to college with a guy from somewhere in Virginia, and he spoke like he had a mouthful of marbles. It wasn't annoying, it was just damned difficult to even understand what he was saying. And he didn't have what might technically be characterized as a speech impediment -- he just had a VERY heavy Virginia accent.

My mother had a good friend who was much the same, but her accent was Kentucky. She pronounced Louisville something like "Loo'-vull".

[Mannlicher]

I can't imagine why I would care about what Brits think.   

[MechAg94]

I can't imagine why I would care about what Brits think.   

I tend to agree with that one.

Boston accents and generally New England accents always represented idiot liberal politicians who wanted Texans to pay more taxes so they could spend more.  The Texas Gulf Coast isn't exactly close to that part of the world. 

So what accents do Brits typically hear?  I find myself doubting they really hear a broad spectrum.