And do you know what the real treat is here? As I read that I can hear you saying it.
The best accent I ever heard was from a substitute teacher I had once or twice. He had recently moved here from Wales and he had the most beautiful accent. It was very liquid, just flowing.
All the girls in my class spent half an hour making him talk just so they could listen.
jessica
I once worked with a woman from the Isle of Man. Oh man, what a beautiful accent.
She moved back there to get married. sigh…
Let’s see… other intriguing accents… A woman from Bordeaux, France, whom I met on a bus. A woman in a convenience store in Copenhagen. Yugoslavian" and Central American accents at work.
Is it just me, or is Standard North American English (i.e. what the newsreaders use on TV) a rather ugly accent? It seems that English from just about anywhere else sounds more beautiful…
*Yes, I was awake during the 90s and know that “Yugoslavia”, per se, almost doesn’t exist.
Scottish accents are British accents. If you mean “English”, please say that. Thank you.
The best accent in the world is the Donegal (NW Ireland) accent, btw.
Unfortuanatly that is the accent that I have. Same with all my friends. I don’t know anyone with a cool accent. I did have a friend who’s karate instructor was South African. I could have listened to his accent all day. Same with pretty much any accent that isn’t mine. I love accents.
Ugly it may be, but I’ve been told that it’s so prevalent on TV because it’s easy to understand. Some shows will even subtitle people who have a strong english/scottish/irish/australian/new england accent.
I’m from south-east Iowa, which is north of the funky southish Missouri accent and south of the Canadian-influenced Wisconsin and Minnesota accents (eh.). My parents were in New Orleans for some reason, and were talking to some louisianans (lousianites?) who commented on their accent as being ‘like the newscasters’. But yes, it is one of the more dull accents.
Personally, my favorite is the not-overly-strong English accent, followed by Irish and Scottish. I met someone from SA when I was staying at a hostel in Minneapolis, but, after making a fool of myself, didn’t get a good chance to talk with him. I think the New England accent is horrible.
Ben
Coldfire, you’ve just made a friend out of every Aussie sheila who reads this thread (you can read that to yourself in an Australian accent if you like).
The South African accent…I’m not overly fond of it, no. It’s a little too clipped for me. Give me a west coast Irish accent any day. Or Scouse. New Zulund accents are fun, but that could just be an Australian thing (we seemed to obsess over making our Kiwi neighbours say “fush ‘n’ chups”).
Since I’ve been learning Japanese for the last year, and a half, I’m very fond of their accent.
But the scotts have the best accent. I love to hear it all day. I could be in love with a person (a woman, to be clear) just by how they sound.
Yeah, I’m a push over, get over it. Hah!
Jet Black
A girl from one of my computer science classes has the greatest British accent ever. I would have never known because her father made her take speech classes to lose the accent. I was completely floored when she did speak with an accent.
Well this thread seems to be about the different English accents but I’ll post my reply anyway
I've taught French as a foreign language for almost 4 years. Before that I was familiar with the more common accents i.e. English, German, Italian...
Now, I can say that I've heard almost all the foreign accents you can imagine but my favourite has to be the Finnish accent. It's something about the way they pronounce French vowels. This is strange because most of them are the same in Finnish. Their vowels just sound slightly different. I don't know what it is but it's really cute. My best friend is from Finland and her French is excellent but she still has that accent. It makes me smile whenever she speaks. It's so nice.
And the most difficult are Dutch, Danish and, surprisingly, Spanish. They have a really hard time with French sounds. I have to listen really hard to understand them. This is particularly frustrating for the Spaniards who understand almost everything they read but cannot make themselves understood.I’ll third (fourth?) the South African accent. A very good friend of mine is native to Port Elizabeth, SA, and I love her accent. I can understand what she says, but some words are hard for me to catch the first time around. Now she has e-mail, and since it is so much cheaper than gabbing on the phone, I really miss it. 
Aussie here who is only now getting to like the Seth Efrican accent. I think many people (unfairly) equate it with apartheid (get to the beck of the boos). It can be quite charming when spoken by the right person though.
Other accents I like: New Zealand (seriously, Ice Wolf, I do), New York, Irish, Russian, Thai (cute the way they replace the final ‘s’ with a ‘t’ “thank you for flying Thai Airwayt”), Italian, and heaps of others I’ll think of later.
Sadly, it’s very improbable that your doing so made her happy. I’d explain why, but that’s not what this thread’s about.
Instead I’ll admit I am the biggest accent fetishist ever, and I love to hear women whose accent is American, Scottish, South African, French (ooh yum), Swedish, Japanese…
Well, my husband is Irish, so he’s got to be first, though there were those South African rugby players who we met at a club in Tokyo that night…
What other man would clear the entire bar area so that I could find my new MAC lipstick? And walk me to the loo, wait for me outside, then walk me back? A man who wants to get laid, that’s who. He wasn’t successful, as I was in a relationship. One of my few regrets in life, having given up the chance to “lay with the gods”
Ahhhh…what an accent, though that wasn’t his best feature.
hijack-
Coldfire, where in the Netherlands do you live? Have a question about Utrecht.
end hijack
I almost fell in love with a girl I met in a travel agency in my family’s home town mainly because of her voice. My family are from Armagh in Northern Ireland and I never found the accent all that appealing but she did something special with it.a
I live in Amsterdam. My e-mail is in my profile, though. Ask away!
I don’t have any particular way to rank which accents I like best. I like accents for different reasons. For example, Yoruban and Chinese tonal languages are SO neat to listen to, especially when those native speakers speak English and the tones carry over. It’s like listening to music, but I can’t help wondering what the tones mean. Then of course I just LOVE Southern accents, particularly Georgia ones. 
I don’t know what it is about that Georgia drawl, but it just sounds so good. Oooh, la, la, and French and Spanish accents are just dreamy too.
Wow…I’m starting to agree with Coldfire more and more. I would step over my dying mother for an Aussie girl. New Zealand accents are cool, but nowhere NEAR an Aussie girl. I have a friend who married a native Aussie, and moved there. I call him just hoping Trina’ll answer the phone.
I have to put in a vote for Fiona Ritchie, the host of “Thistle and Shamrock”, the weekly Celtic music program on NPR. I love the music, but could also listen just hear her Scottish accent.
And on NPR’s All Things Considered, I’ve always loved just hearing Sylvia Poggioli say her own name as she signs off on her reports - this lovely Italian accent suddenly pops out of nowhere.
I once dated a guy with an Irish accent…the accent was lovely, but he wasn’t really a nice person.
I work with a Seth Efrican guy and think his accent is great. He was very pleasantly surprised when I identified it correctly (of course his name is Riaan, which was kind of a give-away–that nice double A that you don’t find in English much.) He has a good voice, too. It’s very smooth and he always sounds very relaxed, like he’s just woken up. 
I love most English/Scottish/Irish accents, but like to actually be able to understand them, which I can’t always do with the really thick up-country accents.
A question for you non-American English-speaking Dopers–does it offend you when ignorant Americans guess your accent incorrectly? My hubby once asked an Australian gentlement where in England was from–:eek: