South African English accent ranked world's 12th 'friendliest' — new survey

Despite South Africans being known for their friendliness and warmth, our accent is viewed less favourably among English-speaking countries, with a new survey ranking it the world's 12th friendliest.

According to online casino company MinimumDespoitCasinos.org only 1 in every 100 survey participants or 1.6% identified the South African accent as the most friendly-sounding — a big drop since 2019 when it was considered the second most attractive accent worldwide. 

The survey found Americans had the most friendly English accent in the world with one in five (or 19.5%) stating the American accent as the friendliest. Despite the Canadian accent being the most closely related to general American English, with similar rules for pronunciation and accent, it received 10.8 fewer percentage points than the American one — with just one in 12 selecting it as the most friendly accent (8.7%). 

The British accent is considered the second most favoured accent, with one in seven identifying it as the most friendly (13.6%). This corresponds with a recent study which found the British accent to be the most likeable globally, with 45% of respondents stating they enjoy hearing their native language spoken with a British accent. 

The Australian accent came in third place, with almost one in 10 (or 8.8%) respondents considering it to be friendly. Despite the close resemblance to the Australian accent, New Zealanders ranked 15th overall with just 1 in 100 respondents identifying the Kiwi accent as the most friendly. 

Amid reports that six in 10 people believe that others had made subconscious judgments about them based on their accent or how they speak (62%), with accent bias dictating job prospects, level of attractiveness, intelligence and even friendliness, MinimumDespoitCasinos.org delved further into the perception of different accents across the world. 

A study of 5,000 participants was conducted to ultimately uncover which country has the highest odds of having the most and least friendly accents. 

In understanding why some accents are perceived as more friendly than others, Dr Christopher Strelluf, associate professor of linguistics at the University of Warwick said attitudes towards language varieties usually reflect the ideas “we have about people who speak those varieties”.

“If people around the world think American English sounds friendly, it’s good news for Americans because it means people think of Americans as friendly people. More nuanced accent labels would likely reveal even greater variability.”

He said Americans would probably have different evaluations of the friendliness of English they associate with the big cities of the northeastern seaboard compared with the rural areas of the southeastern US. Many people in the UK would feel that accents of the English North are much friendlier than those of the English South. 

“The meanings of Englishes globally are also changing rapidly across a range of dimensions. For instance, while British Englishes have historically provided an international model for ‘correct’ English, people who live in countries where English is being learnt for access to the global marketplace increasingly prefer American Englishes as their standard,” said Strelluf. 

“As such, the attitudes towards English in this survey reveal the fundamental ways we continue to navigate our social relationships through language and through our ideas about language.”

TimesLIVE