Let’s face it a person accent can add a swagg to a person you might not have noticed before they opened their mouths. If you’re from the dirty south and more particularly Texas… we’ve got good news! Big 7 Travel came out with their list of the top 50 sexiest accents in the United States and that Texas drawl comes in at the top spot of number one. Here’s the list:
50th. Long Islander
People from ‘Lawnguyland’ might be a bit upset with being voted as having America’s least sexiest accent. But look, can they really disagree?
49th. New Jersey
North Jerseyan? Think ‘cawfee’ and dropping the ‘Rs’. South Jerseyan? It’s more like the Philly accent, but not close enough to bring up Jersey’s overall sex appeal.
48th. Minnesotan
Throw in plenty of Minnesota “yahs” and “hons” to get that famous Fargo accent.
47th. Alaskan
A massive migration of Minnesotans during the 1930s means that the Alaskan accent sounds all too similar to Minnesota folk.
46th. California Valley
The often-ridiculed San Fernando “Valley Girl” accent rose to fame in the 1980s, but is still spoken by many in South California today. Like, awesome?
45th. Southern Ohioan
In the southern end of Ohio, where a pin is actually a pen and tin means ten, the accent is almost southern, yet not.
44th. Floridian
Not including the sexy twang of Miami, the Florida accent is a baffling mix of Midwest and Northeast with a hint of Southern. A sandwich is a ‘sangwich’ and the people have spoken – it’s nowhere near the top 10.
43rd. Pittsburgh
“Yinz going dahntahn?” The Western Pennsylvania English accent is often considered the ugliest in all of America, so Pittsburgh locals can feel lucky that they’ve escaped last place this time around.
42nd. Cincinnati
Slowly but surely dying out as younger Ohioans speak with a more general Midland accents, the classic Cincinnati accent has short ‘a’s, so class becomes cless.
41st. Pennsylvania Dutch
While a typical US state might have max two or three dialects, Pennsylvania has five. The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect has been dying out, as non-Amish younger Pennsylvania Germans tend to speak modern General American English. “Yah, well.”
40th. Appalachian
Also known as Smoky Mountain English or Southern Mountain English, words get joined together and ‘a’ gets added onto random words – think “I’m goin’ a-huntin’”. Potato becomes ‘tader’ and hollow becomes ‘holler’. Charming yes, but sexy it ain’t.
39th. Colorado
Coloradans don’t have a distinctive sound, but there’s definitely an accent here, despite what some people might say. It’s recently been influenced by the Californian vowel shift, yet still holds on to dropping the ‘t’s, so mountains becomes ‘moun’uns’.
38th. Providence
Want to talk Rhode Island? The Boston-meets-Brooklyn accent is hard to mimic, but clearly distinct. Listen to any episode of Jersey Shore with Pauly D and you’ll understand instantly what it sounds like.
37th. Tallahassee
You’re most likely to hear a Southern twang in Tallahassee, Florida, but the accent here is clearly different to others down south. Sure, they say ‘y’all’, but not quite right.
36th. Ozark
Spoken in the Ozark Mountain region of northwestern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, the vowels are shifted all over the place. Calm becomes ‘cam’ and share becomes ‘sheer’. And yes, Ferners (anyone not from the Ozarks) might have trouble understanding it.
35th. “Hoi Toider”
High Tider, or Hoi Toider, is the accent spoken by a small amount of people on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It’s an unusual brogue that sounds a bit Australian,a bit Irish and also a bit British.
34th. San Francisco
You might not hear it so often what with the multicultural mix of folk now living in SF, but the classic San Francisco accent is super fast with words running into each other. “Whereja-go?”
33rd. Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley English still holds some traces of Dutch in the rural areas, with a touch of New York City’s short vowels. It’s basically New England English-meets-General American and New York State.
32nd. General American
This standard American accent is what you’re most likely to hear on the radio or TV, where it’s near impossible to tell where the newscasters are from. It’s slightly boring, but nicely inoffensive to the ears. Listen to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to hear a prime example.
31st. Atlanta
A true Atlanta accent is musical, with dropped ‘r’s. Can’t quite picture it? Opportunity sounds like ‘opp-ah-tunity’ and whatever is spoken like ‘what-eh-vah’.
30th. New Mexican
This lovely type of Spanglish has unique expressions that you won’t hear outside of New Mexico, such as ‘The Fe’ for Santa Fe and a liberal use of ‘Eeeeeeee’ in the middle of sentences.
29th. Milwaukee
If you want to know how to speak perfect Milwaukee-ese, pronounce ‘bag’ as ‘baig’, add an ‘aina’ on to the end of a question – like saying ‘ain’t it?’, which comes from the states Germanic influences. And don’t forget to say the city like ‘M’waukee’.
28th. Western
Generally spoken by locals in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming, the typical Western accent is distinguished by the cot-caught merger, where both vowel words sound the same. Hella sexy? Kinda.
27th. Charleston
Typical of older Southern U.S. English, the Charleston accent is lyrical and low, but is likely dying out in younger generations. Old Charleston charmers will say “hoose” instead of house and “stey-it” for state.
26th. Kentucky
Kentucky accents vary all over the state, but it’s a southern beaut – y’all living here apparently have a smooth drawl and long vowels that sounds like a mix of Midwestern and Southern tones.
25th. New Orleans
New Orleans English, or “Yat” (this name comes from the phrase “Where are you at?” which is shortened in NOLA to “Where y’at?”), is not to be confused with Cajun, which our readers considered way sexier. Yats say ‘doze’ for those and drop the ‘r’s.
24th. Oklahoma
The Okie dialect is a blend of Midlands/Ozark and Deep South. Not sure if you have it? If you’ve ever used the expressions “might could” or “fixing to”, you’re from Oklahoma through and through.
23rd. Cleveland
Clevelanders might say they don’t have an accent, but oh-boy they really do. They speak with hard, nasally a’s or and short o’s that sound more like an ‘a’.
22nd. Connecticut
In between New York City and Boston, the Connecticut accent has been influenced by both yet is much, much subtler. There’s a lot of ‘o’s that sound like ‘u’s, and the ‘t’ is often dropped completely in words.
21st. Kansas
You can forget about the myth that says people from Kansas don’t have an accent. Kansas City is in the Midland speech area, while a new accent has emerged in the town of Liberal, where people now speak with a Latin American Spanish tone – even if they’re native English speakers.
20th. Tennesseean
If you call a window a ‘winder’ and your hometown your ‘stompin’ grounds’, congratulations! You have a sexy Tennessee accent. Words like goose become shorter, sounding more like ‘gus’.
19th. Virginia Piedmont
Do the words “four dogs” become “fo-uh dah-awgs” when you speak? Do you say “ote” for “out” or “abote” for “about”? If yes, then we’re happy say you have an officially semi-sexy Virginian accent.
18th. Baltimorese
Similar to Philly speak (but according to our survey, not as sexy), Baltimore residents will commonly pronounce mirror as “mere” and water as “wooder”. The key feature of the Baltimore accent is identified by a sound change called “fronting back vowels”, where words like goose sound more like “gewse”.
17th. Alabama
The Alabama accent is strongly rhotic, with extra ‘r’s added to words that don’t need them – like “warsh” instead of wash. A slow drawl, plenty of “y’all’s and dropping the ‘ng’ at the end of words.
16th. Midwestern
The 12 states that make up the Midwest have some of their own unique accents, but generally speaking the Midwestern accent in say, Iowa and Nebraska, is subtle and sweet. The words Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme with each other.
New Orleans’ Cajun English is most strongly influenced by Cajun French, and is experiencing a revival as younger people want to celebrate their heritage. A ‘th’ sounds like a ‘d’, and you’ll hear lots of slang French loanwords. “Allons” = “Let’s go!”
14th. Yooper
‘Yoopernese’ is the dialect you’ll hear in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The accent is heavily influenced by the area’s Scandinavian immigrants, so they say ‘yah’ instead of yeah, “d” for “th” (“dere” for there, “dat” for “that”) and ‘eh’ at the end of most sentences.
13th. Miami
A relatively new young accent, the Miami accent has the same sexy rhythm as Spanish with Cuban loanwords thrown in for good measure. The word “salmon” in Miami is pronounced with the L: “sall-mon.” Long may it last.
12th. Chicano
The dialect of many Mexican Americans from Texas to California, Chicano is so much more than “just a Spanish accent.” Most common in East L.A, Chicano English uses Spanish words mixed into English sentences and the same sexy lilt.
11th. Northwestern
The hard-to-pin-down Northwestern accent is found in Oregon and Washington has features of the Canadian/California Vowel Shift. The letter “e” in words like egg sounds more like ‘ay’, so don’t be confused if you hear someone ordering avo and “ayggs” for their breakfast.
10th. Californian
The typical Californian accents sounds similar to General American, meaning to American ears it isn’t an accent at all. But we’re here to tell you that it is. Vowels are super long, so yep, dude really does become ‘duuuuuude’. But it sounds hella sexay.
9th. St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri has some unique features of its own that make it different than the rest of the Midlands. Native speakers swap the ”ar” sound for “or” (as in “farty” for “forty” and “carn” for “corn”), so get ready to make the joke ‘I Farty-Far’ a lot.
8th. Philadelphia
One of the world’s most unique dialects is in the Delaware Valley – the infamous Philly talk. The words “fight” and “bike” sound more like “foit” and “boik,” while “very” becomes “vurry”. It’s a thick accent, but hey, if it’s good enough for Will Smith…
7th. Hawaiian
Hawaiian is a Polynesian language, so it’s slow vowels and elongated words that together sound so relaxing you’ll never want to stop listening. America’s only official bilingual state, native speakers mix Pidgin and English, so the “r”s are generally dropped.
6th. Mississippi
A classic ‘Deep South’ accent, when Mississippians say “e”, they make it sound more like “uhay”. Watch The Help starring Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer for the perfect example.
5th. Chicago
Where to begin? Some hate it, but turns out a LOT love it. Words like “but” and “cut” sound a bit more like “bought” and “caught”, and you’re not “looking at a picture”, you’re “lookin’ atta pitcher.”.
4th. Mainer
The Maine accent is surprisingly popular, ayuh! If you’re a real “Mainah”, you’ll drop your ‘r’s, go to “yoger” class instead of yoga and add in wicked to make every adjective extra powerful.
3rd. New York
The New York accent is probably one of the most recognizable dialects in all of America, thanks to many a famous movie. NYC speakers have loooong vowels and short ‘a’s. Fast and hypernasal, yet quite charming at times.
2nd. Bostonian
One of America’s most imitated and parodied accents, Boston almost comes out on top of the country’s sexiest accents. And yes, just like Mahhhhk Wahlberg, locals really do say “pahk yuh cahr in hahvuhd yahd”.
1st. Texan
Who can resist a slow, Texan drawl? Not us, and not our community, clearly. The typical Texan accent is a “Southern accent with a twist”, with strong ‘r’s and plenty of ‘Howdy’s’. America’s sexiest accent?
Top 50 Sexiest Accents in The U.S. was originally published on kysdc.com
