FRANCE ♥ NOO YAWK!
Accent A très sexy
Tawk dirty to me!
People from the romantic nations of France and Italy find New York accents sexier than any other US inflection, including Southern, Bostonian, Californian, Texan, Midwestern and Minnesotan, a study has found.
The study, by language-learning app Babbel and hostel chain Generator Hostels, asked 500 workers at hostels across Europe which US accents got them going and found 57 percent of French workers and 19 percent of Italians were aroused when someone purrs, “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” into their ear.
Swedes, however, said “fuhgeddaboudit” to anyone who actually says “fuhgeddaboudit,” ranking the New York enunciation as the least attractive. They, like, prefer Californians. The results came as no shock to French expats in the Big Apple. They say everything New York is très chic back home.
“It’s the most iconic [US] city,” said Edith Boncompain, the head of the French Institute and Alliance Française Language Center on East 60th Street and a Manhattan resident for 11 years.
“French people have this contact through television, through movies, with New Yorkers . . . Many songs, even in French, speak about New York.” Language experts agree. “I think it has a lot to do with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro,” said dialect coach Erik Singer.
“There are so many movies with New York accents, and some really fun ones. I imagine it’s fun to do. It’s fun to do lines from ‘Goodfellas.’ ”
There’s nothing that makes any accent objectively attractive, he said, but people likely attach their own feelings and baggage to the association.
“So I guess Swedes have a thing with New York!” he said.
Boncompain suggested Gothamites should put their New Yorkness on full blast when visiting Paris.
“A Parisian person will be completely attracted to someone coming from New York,” she said.
Across all Europeans surveyed, Southern accents were the most popular, with New York coming in second place.
Minnesota’s “Fargo” accent was the least popular overall, with just 5 percent of respondents saying, “You betcha!”
Germans, meanwhile, are mysteriously most aroused by Boston’s distinctive timbre.