Option 1: the American accent The most popular English accent of them all. Spread around the world by American cinema, music, television and more than 350 million North Americans (including Canadians, eh), this is the easiest accent for most people to understand, whether native speakers or non-native speakers.
For the entire world, American accent is most universal. British, Scottish, Irish and Australian accents are pretty unfamiliar with all ears of the people around the globe. Irish English is the easiest to understand.
In most countries around the world, it's common to hear spoken English on television or in the cinema. For this reason, students may aspire to speak a sort of 'Hollywood English'. Others may consider the formality of British English, the 'Queen's English', the best English accent to learn.
A survey of 2,000 adults conducted by language learning platform Preply reckoned the Tyneside accent was the second hardest to understand, behind Glaswegian and just ahead of Liverpudlian. By way of contrast, most folk reckoned the soft tones of the Bristol accent were the easiest to understand.
Similarly, the northeast accent was surveyed to be the “smartest sounding,” with 47% of those surveyed voting for the northeast. According to the data summary of the survey, 39% of people surveyed assumed someone was more intelligent because of their accent.
British, Australian, and Irish accents are the top 3 foreign accents people find to be most attractive. When it comes to attraction, 80% of people feel that accents make someone more attractive, with 77% saying someone's accent was what attracted them to a person.
The French accent, previously considered the sexiest in the world, has been dethroned by the British accent, aka the Queen's English, in a global study carried out by Time Out in over 30 countries.
The Australian accent emerged after the arrival of the European Settlers in 1788, who came from different parts of Britain. Unlike British English which is made up of nearly 40 different dialects, Australian English isn't as varied despite the east and west coast being approximately 4000 kilometers apart.
It really depends on where you're starting from. A very broad Australian accent can be exceptionally hard to understand (a common joke is that we slur all our words together because it's too hot to put spaces in), but if you spend time in Australia you'll likely pick it up.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern. While men desired Israeli and Colombian accents the most, this was not mirrored amongst the women who were surveyed, who ultimately preferred British and Spanish accents.
The General Australian accent serves as the standard variety of English across the country. According to linguists, it emerged during the 19th century. General Australian is the dominant variety across the continent, and is particularly so in urban areas.
According to a recent poll in the Independent, the British accent has been chosen as being the most attractive accent in the world, beating the French accent which was once know as the loveliest accent.
Some people believe that RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most standard or general accent in British English. Many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools teach it because it is supposed to be the most “polished” pronunciation. It is typically referred to as “Queen's English” or “BBC English”.
The British Accent
The Great British accent proved to be the most difficult of all the accents to imitate – along with the regional Yorkshire and Cockney pronunciations, in particular.
The Australian accent is famous for its vowel sounds, absence of a strong “r” pronunciation and the use of an inflection – or intonation – at the end of sentences, which can make statements sound like questions. According to Felicity, the way vowels are pronounced is the most peculiar feature of Australian English.
According to linguists, there are three main kinds of Aussie accent: broad (think former Prime Minister Bob Hawke), general (closer to Kevin Rudd) and cultivated (like Malcolm Fraser).
Some key features of the Australian accent are the schwa, /ə/, the non-rhotic /r/ sound (listen to an Australian say a word with the /r/ sound, and then listen to an American say the same word and you can here the distinct difference in the way that the /r/ phoneme is pronounced and stressed), heavily nasalised vowel ...
INDIA. According to the data, people from India are considered the most attractive people in the world, followed by those from the USA and Sweden. The rest of the top five most attractive nations are Japan and Canada.
Number of Speakers Worldwide
Around 250 million people speak with an American English accent, while around 60 million people speak with a British English accent. If you want to go with the numbers alone, you would be much better off learning American English.
Although Australians and Kiwis might sound comparatively similar to the untrained ear, research has shown there is a distinct contrast in the pronunciation of vowels. Australians tend to pronounce their vowels with more emphasis on the sound [ee], whereas New Zealanders make more prominent [u] sounds.
For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accent" exists.
When it comes to phonology, the most conservative dialects are the ones spoken in Scotland and parts of northern England, which retain a very Germanic set of sounds, then followed by Irish dialects, Virginia-Maryland dialect, Anglo-Canadian dialects and the New England dialect.