This Language Earns 'Sexiest Accent' Vote; Spoiler Alert: Not French

A European language has emerged as the "most romantic", "most passionate", and "most sexy" accent of the world, according to a recent experiment by language learning software Babbel. 6,000 people from various countries worldwide said that they found the Italian accent most appealing. Although the French accent has been known for its lingering sensuality, Italian has taken the throne now, according to the playful Babbel study. 

In 2017, French was known as the sexiest language according to an experiment in which 15,000 people had consented. In a recent study, a majority of the participants from countries like the UK, Spain, Germany and even France and Italy themselves agreed that it was time for the Italian accent to overtake.

Study Unravels Perceptions Of World Languages

Language learning platform Babbel has released a new study on people's perceptions of different languages of the world. The study found that Italian came to be the 'sexiest' accent of all by most people in the study. “There are certain characteristics of Italian that may contribute to its appeal,” Babbel language teacher Noël Wolf explained to the UK news platform Daily Mail.

Wolf continued, "The rise and fall of pitch in spoken Italian can create a musical quality, which some people find alluring and attractive. Certain phonetic features, such as the rolling of ‘r’ sounds, can be distinctive in Italian, which to many is regarded as charming or attractive.”

Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, the British English accent was found to be 'most polite' by a majority of participants while the German accent won the 'most direct' category.

How Does A Partner's Accent Affect Attraction?

The Babbel study also studied the a of attitudes of people when asked about a romantic partner with a different accent from theirs. 70% of participants in the UK-based study said that if their romantic partner had a different native language to themselves, learning the language would help foster a stronger emotional connection between them.

Several other studies have also shown this result-- In 2017, Patti Adank, a professor of speech perception and production at University College London noted that “English speakers are drawn to the melody of a language such as French or Italian.” Psychologists and linguistics have previously examined this common phenomenon where different accents blossom more attraction among couples.