I'm a sucker for surveys, especially when they're favorable to Massachusetts/Boston - smartest, healthiest, wealthiest. But in the interest of fair play, I also pay attention to surveys that show "us" in a less favorable light - rudest, snobbiest, duddiest dressers.
When it comes to a survey on accents, however, I don't know quite what to make of it.
I have no problem believing that, in a survey of 2,000 Americans, the accent voted "most annoying" is the Boston accent. If they'd asked me, I'd have said Southern, followed by Southern California (which I'm assuming is the Valley Girl accent). But they didn't ask me, so... Anyway, Southern ranked as the second most annoying, so I've got some company.
The Boston accent is annoying. Annoying if, by Boston accent, folks mean the "classic" South Boston (Irish) accent of The
Us locals do drop our "r's" (c.f., smaht, pissah) and add in "r's" where they don't belong. (You don't have to be a Kennedy to say "Cuber." Have a listen to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC, why don't you.) We just don't do it quite as broadly (as annouyingly, as stupid-soundingly) as Sully from Southie, whose accent we make fun of it all the time.
We also make fun of posers who get that accent wrong, as happens so often.
But here's a question for you. Why is Sully from Southie's accent - or, more likely, the accent of Sully from Braintree or Weymouth, or someplace else on the South Shore that his family fled to - the one associated with Boston?
Why not the Boston Brahmin accent, which is just a bit of a remove from The Crown? Is it that all the Boston Brahmin's have died out?
Or the just plain crazy Kennedy accent which I never in my long life as a denizen of Massachusetts have heard come out of the mouth of anyone who wasn't a Kennedy. (Okay, many of us do say "Cuber" instead of Cuba.) Ask not about the origins of that accent.
Anyway, Boston being the most annoying accent wasn't the only interesting/weird finding of the survey (results of which I found on Preply).
The survey didn't just focus on intra-US accents, it went worldwide.
I wasn't in the least surprised to find that the most appealing accent in the world is British.
But again, which British accent we talking about here? I'm guessing it's the plummy accent of The Crown and Downton Abbey, not Cockney or Liverpudlian, a.k.a. Scouser (gear, fab, fab, gear). Henry Higgins, not Liza Doolittle.
Personally, I get sucked in by the plummy accent. If I'm watching a movie or play in which it's deployed, I can't for the life of me figure out if the acting's any good.
Anyway, Australian comes in second on the most appealing accent list. I actually find it most appalling, mate.
(British and Australian also came in one-two when it came to the sexiest accent. Again, Hugh Grant I can see (hear?). Crocodile Dundee? Sorry mate.)
Americans consider Welsh the worst accent. Huh? Do most people even know what a Welsh accent sounds like? Other than the old movie, How Green Was My Valley, there aren't a lot of portrayals of the Welsh accent to look to. Maybe they played them tapes. But who's got a problem with Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton?
The Russian accent placed number 6 on the worst list. I'm guessing if they re-did the survey today, it would find itself in the top spot. Just sayin'.
On the sexy scale, Welsh is considered the least sexy. Apparently, no one played them a tape of Richard Burton.
Korea placed second least sexy. (I can't be the only one who's hard put to conjure up a Korean accent. This one gets me a big 'huh?')
Welsh was also rated the least trustworthy accent. What does this even mean? Russia was third least trustworthy. Run this again and Welsh will be knocked out of contention, I'm quite sure.
Americans find the British, Canadian, and Australian accents the most trustworthy. Anyone else think this is because they're all speaking English?
But, surely, trustworthiness lies in the speaker. Boris Johson trustworthy? Nyet! Justin Trudeau trustworthy? Da!
Welsh gets dumped on again when it comes to sounding smart; the Brits, no surprise, sound the smartest. The old school Oxbridge tie and all that.
Amazingly, Welsh, unlike Boston, was also ranked the least annoying. Not trustworthy, not sexy, not smart. But somehow, not annoying? Someone pleaes make this make sense to me.
I'm not even going to get into the results when it came to rating American regional accents, other than to ask how the New York accent gets ranked the smartest. Which New York accent is that? I say fuggedaboutit!
It was very entertaining to read through these survey results, that's for sure. But I have to say that, even by dumb survey standards, this one doesn't make a lot of sense.
Among other things, how many people can discern the difference between Chicago accent and Midwestern to the degree that they can rank Midwestern the second smartest accent, and Chicago the third.
Boston comes in fourth. I say ha, ha. Sure, the Sully from Southie accent makes anyone sound like a moron, but us Brahmin wannabes, we sound wicked smaht, even if we are annoying.
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