Anglo-Saxon from Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire is actually the purest form of English, he wrote - and Bristol is in the middle. The 'R' is known by linguists as a 'rhotic R', and Bristol has given it, and the long 'a', to the world.
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English.
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.
People from Newcastle speak a dialect called Geordie, which is one of the strongest and most distinctive accents in England.
So, want to know which region came top? It was the 'Welsh accent', whatever that is, with 20 points. This was closely followed by the Yorkshire accent, with a total of 15. The top five was rounded out by the West Country (13), Newcastle (10) and Northern Ireland (five).
The Cornish accent is apparently not everyone's cup of tea and was recently voted the least sexy accent in the UK. A poll, which aimed to find the UK's sexiest accent, was carried out by the dating app Match. Outrageously, 87% of the 2,300 participants voted that the Cornish accent is not sexy.
Accordingly, we asked people what the most and least pleasant accent to listen to is. Overwhelmingly, people like the Southern accent best, followed by British and Australian accents. Southern accents tend to be thought of as friendly and welcoming, while British and Australian accents are more exotic.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
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 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.
No matter where in the world they come from, visitors to Australia often remark about the difficulty in understanding the language. People from non-English speaking backgrounds who may have had the chance to study English at home still struggle to comprehend the Aussie vernacular and accent.
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.
The most widely accepted theory to why Australians have the accent they do is that the first Australian born children (of the colonizers, not the natives obviously) simply created the first trace of the recognizable accent amongst themselves naturally.
If you find the British accent difficult to understand, it's likely you'll find the Aussie accent even harder to grasp as, for the most part, Australia is a melting pot of all the different regional dialects of British English.
And Swedish accents are thought to be the most “intelligent” and “trustworthy” (24 percent and 15 percent, respectively).
1. Irish. The Voquent community has spoken! And this time around, the Irish accent has come out on top with more than half the votes as the world's sexiest accent.
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.
Let's face it, most of us are suckers for a sexy accent. According to a recent survey conducted by the popular dating website MissTravel.com, over 2000 American men and women regard Australian accents as one of the sexiest in the world.
The Mainstream Australian Accent is a distinct accent produced by native English speakers in Australia. It's a tough accent to replicate, even for actors in Hollywood.
Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: broad, general and cultivated. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent.
It is considered impolite to ask a direct question about a person's salary or wealth. Inquiring about someone's weight or age is also highly inappropriate in many situations. Spitting in public is rude. If there is a line for something, always queue and wait for your turn.
One of the first things you'll notice about Australia will no doubt be the very unique speaking habits of its people. Australians speak fast, 'chew' words and skip pronunciation of letters – combine this with their penchant for slang and abbreviations, and you have a language that's quite difficult to comprehend!
In a nationally representative survey of Australian 15-year-olds, 87 per cent said they 'treat all people with respect regardless of their cultural background' and 85 per cent said they 'respect the values of people from different cultures', compared to the OECD average of 81 per cent and 79 per cent respectively.
In a 1950 copy of Meanjin, Phillips used the term 'cultural cringe' to define the penchant for Australians to see their artists and writers' work as inferior to anything from overseas, Britain and the United States in particular. As a consequence, many Australians in the cultural field spent time or moved overseas.