Everyone Has an Accent. Here’s How Georgia Sounds.

Accents in the United States are pretty varied. After all, the country is a melting pot, so people come from all over the world and bring their mother tongue with them. Their ancestry and culture has changed the way people talk, but the cultural diversity of the United States has changed the way people talk even more-so.

Depending on where you live in the US, you probably have an accent. Even if you don’t hear it yourself, someone else will. Regardless of whether they’re from the United States or a neighboring nation, someone nearby thinks you talk funny. Or maybe they think your accent is unpleasant. Maybe, they think your accent is actually attractive or persuasive.

In the business of marketing, professionals want to know their audience. Knowing their audience means knowing how they feel about other cultures and consequently, their accents. Moneypenny, a UK brand that manages calls and chats for clients, recently published a survey on Americans’ attitudes about international and domestic accents that noted Americans are particularly approving of the southern accent.

The study looked at responses from 500 people across the states to see how they felt about accents, including British accents, Irish accents, Australian accents, Midwestern accents, Southern accents, and more. The southern accent is most likely to encourage a consumer to buy something, while the Minnesotan accent is the least likely.

What’s wonderful is in almost every positive category, the sweet southern drawl wins by a landslide. Unsurprising, right?

Most Americans like the southern accent and they also agree on the most unpleasant accents. There’s nothing to bond over like hatred which is to say that overwhelmingly, respondents chose the Boston and New York accents as the most unpleasant to listen to, and least likely to encourage them to buy something. Even though they agree New England accents are particularly unpleasant, there is evidence to show that might be because the accents are so strong.

Wicked cool.

Unfortunately for some states in the South, their accents aren’t as admired as others. Texans, Louisianans, and y’all in the deep south have less reported southern charm to their voices. Fans of Texas native, Matthew McConaughey, would argue this pretty extensively considering almost all of them would agree his accent makes him far more attractive. Humorously enough, this might be impacted by the fake Australian accent he adopted for a year or so. Another study pits these stats against each other, showing that apparently, Texan accents are ranked the sexiest in the United States, while our Atlanta lilt only ranks #31.

What would you rank each of these accents?