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Melissa’s Blog

Melissa’s Blog

Melissa’s Blog

Boston Accents Ranked #1 for Most Annoying, But What About Smartest and Sexiest?

By Melissa
CAMBRIDGE, MA - FEBRUARY 8: This sign on the westbound side of Memorial Drive at River Street in Cambridge has a very Boston typo: the word "Harvard" has been misspelled "Havard." (Photo by Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

We all know the Boston accent is a very polarizing one. Up here, it’s just the way we speak. However when we travel, others can notice right away that we’re from Boston. We’re a very proud people. Even if we don’t realize we have one, we do. People outside of Massachusetts either love our accents or they hate it. According to a new survey from Preply which is a language learning platform, the Boston accent is listed as the 4th smartest sounding accent in the country, the 6th most liked, and the 1st most annoying accent overall. Different languages and accents were studied and according to Preply, there are more than 7,100 languages spoken around the world and more than 30 dialects in the United States alone.

According to Preply, “In addition to accents impacting attraction, 68% of people say that someone’s accent affects how annoying they perceive that person to be.” Therefore, the Boston and the Southern accent are both tied for first as the most annoying.

Let’s run down each category and find out where Boston stands on each list.

Accent

CAMBRIDGE, MA – FEBRUARY 8: This sign on the westbound side of Memorial Drive at River Street in Cambridge has a very Boston typo: the word “Harvard” has been misspelled “Havard.” (Photo by Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

  • SMARTEST: #3 Midwestern

    Described as elongated words, long o’s, flat a’s

  • SMARTEST: #2 New York

    Focusing on the “aw” sound, the New York accent is also very unique

  • SMARTEST #1 Northeastern

    “The Northeastern US is characterized by a distinctive accent in which speakers drop the letter “r” and use nasal “a” sounds.”

  • MOST ANNOYING: #4 New York

    Described as one of the most popular accents in American cinema

  • MOST ANNOYING #3 Long Island

    Long Island Accent are said by people from Long Island. They change the “o” to “aw“.
    long island accent, chawcolate, cawfee, bawl, dawg

  • MOST ANNOYING: #1 tie Southern

     In terms of accent, its most innovative forms include southern varieties of Appalachian English and certain varieties of Texan English.

  • MOST ANNOYING: #1 tie Boston

    The traditional Boston accent is widely known for being non-rhotic (or “r-dropping”), particularly before the mid-20th century.

  • MOST LIKED: #6 Boston

    A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. 

  • MOST LIKED: #5 Southern California

    A Southern California Accent? As If!

    One linguistic expert calls it "The California Shift," which has to do with how we rotate our vowels.

  • MOST LIKED: #4 New Orleans

    The Many Accents of New Orleans

    Residents of New Orleans speak in many different accents, flavored by many different ethnic and cultural influences. A gumbo, one might say.

  • MOST LIKED: #3 Midwestern

  • MOST LIKED: #2 New York

  • MOST LIKED: #1 Southern

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