At first glance, you might think that the French accent is the sexiest in the world... But no!
A hard blow for French chauvinism, which would like our language and our accent abroad to be the most charming in the world. An observation which is not far from the truth according to frequent surveys, but which is no longer relevant, according to the results of a recent study, which should not please the French who boast of such an assessment.
This study, carried out by the language learning platform Babbel, little publicized in France and understandably, was revealed by the British site the Daily Mail. Its conclusion is clear: French is no longer considered to be the sexiest accent in the world, according to the responses of those questioned. To carry out this survey, Babbel questioned 6,000 people about the languages perceived as “the sexiest”, “the most romantic” and “the most passionate” in the world.
But then, if it's not French, what could be the accent considered most attractive? Well that of our neighbors... the Italians! Nothing surprising though, this other Mediterranean language would of course have come to mind... after French of course. But here we are, dethroned by our friends on the other side of the Alps, now first in the ranking.
“There are certain characteristics of Italian that can contribute to its appeal,” explains Noël Wolf, language teacher at Babbel, to the Daily Mail. “The rise and fall of tone in Italian can create a musical quality, which some people find attractive and attractive." He added: "Certain phonetic features, such as rolling 'r' sounds, can be distinctive in Italian, which is considered charming or attractive by many."
The survey results showed that German won the title of "most direct language" and British English won the title of "most polite". Based on this observation, another British newspaper, the New York Post, contacted Babbel representatives to go further in the analysis, citing another 2017 survey from the same platform, this time conducted among more than 15,000 people and who named French as “the sexiest accent” and Italian as number two.
“English speakers are attracted to the melody of a language like French or Italian,” Patti Adank, a linguist and professor of speech perception and production at University College London, pointed out at the time. This should soothe the ego of our readers who love French the most: rest assured, between the tricolor accent and that of the Italians, everything can quickly change!
