In the unending pursuit of love, or its less eternal surrogate, the right accent can be as attractive as bright eyes, a beaming smile and a parabolic backside.

For world travelers, a far-flung tongue promises the unknown, confirms the known and dispels the thought-we-knew.

Does our highly scientific survey exclude your favorite accent? Vote on our Facebook poll.

But no accent is sexy when it’s strong enough to crush a beer can. Which means not all accents are created equal.

It’s estimated that there are nearly 7,000 languages on earth. That’s nearly 7,000 different ways to traipse clumsily through the English language -- or to sex it up like a Justin Timberlake song wrapped in chocolate cleavage.

Which begs our list of the world’s sexiest brogues. Some of you may have a legitimate case for inclusion in the top twelve. Others -- we’re looking at you, Vietgermans -- do not.


Our also-rans included Putonghua (especially when Taiwanese women speak it in gentle tones), Australian (as appealing as warm Foster's to some, tantalizingly exotic to others) and Japanese (the language of repressed salarymen is also strangely designed for pillow talk).


Because when it comes to accents, there are no absolutes. Except that Bronx English is absolutely horrible.

12. Argentine
The bad news: she finds your bad breath and dirty elbows repulsive. The good news: it sounded totally hot when she told you.


Famous tongues: Fernando Lamas, Gabriela Sabatini

A historical refuge for Spaniards, Italians and Germans, the hyper-libidinous South Ameripean melting pot of Argentina has cultivated a proud, pouty tone. With its own pronunciation of Spanish letters (“ll” sounds like “shh”) and its own words (“you” is “vos”), this is a dialect that’s hard to get. (Or at least plays that way.)

Sounds like: A tightly tuned guitar of G-strings strummed by a lamb shank

11. Thai
He not only floats like a butterfly, he speaks like one, too.

Famous tongues: Tony Jaa, Tata Young

With five tones comprising their native speech, the traffickers of this often fragile accent turn any language into a song of seduction. Thai is largely monosyllabic, so multi-beat foreign words get extra emphases right up until the last letter, which is often left off, leaving the listener wanting more. (Or at least asking “Huh?” lustfully.)

Sounds like: R-rated karaoke

10. Trinidadian
If their accents don't seduce you, their mon boobs will.

Famous tongues: Nikki Minaj, Billy Ocean

For fetishists of oddball sexuality, the Caribbean island of Trinidad offers an undulating, melodic gumbo of pan-African, French, Spanish, Creole and Hindi dialects that, when adapted for English, is sex on a pogo stick.

Sounds like: A rubber life raft bobbing on a sea of steel drums

Also on CNN: Asia's top 5 celeb sex scandals

9. Brazilian Portuguese
She screams, she scores!

Famous tongues: Alice Braga, Anderson Silva

Perhaps owing to its freedom from French influence, the Brazilian Portuguese accent has a more colorful, puerile flair than its coarser European counterpart. The resulting yowl of drawn-out vowels reveals a flirty freedom of spirit that sounds like a permanent vacation.

Sounds like: The near, then far, then near again hum of a low-wattage vacuum cleaner that runs on dance sweat



8. U.S. Southern
Y'all, we love it when y'all call us y'all. Especially when y'all are wearing orange chaps.

Famous tongues: Matthew McConaughy, Britney Spears

There’s nothing sexy about being in a hurry, and you could clock the growth rate of grass with the honeyed drawl -- less Tea Party, more “True Blood” -- of a Southern beau or belle.

Sounds like: Molasses taking a smoking break

Also on CNN: 15 unusual places to spend a night

7. Oxford British
"Down to your last pair of socks then, what?"


Famous tongues: Hugh Laurie, Sienna Miller

Authoritative. Upright. Erudite. Scholarly. Few accents promise the upward nobility of the Queen’s English. It’s a take on the language that sets hearts devoted to James Bond and Hermione Granger aflutter. And, should the speaker fail to slake your most wanton desires, eh, at least you’ll learn something.

Sounds like: A crisply ironed shirt playing a harp

Where does French land? Who has the sexiest accent? Click on to find out.

6. Irish
Just lay off the leprechaun jokes and you'll be fine.

Famous tongues: Colin Farrell, Andrea Corr

Valued slightly more in men than in women, the Irish brogue is a lilting, lyrical articulation that’s charming, if not exotic. Fluid and uplifting, it can swing from vulnerable to threatening over the course of a sentence, restoring your faith in the world again … right before it stabs you with a broken bottle top.

Sounds like: A marauding pixie




5. Nigerian
Some Nigerians are actually worth giving your bank account information to.

Famous tongues: King Sunny Adé, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde

Dignified, with just a hint of willful naiveté, the deep, rich “oh’s” and “eh’s” of Naija bend the English language without breaking it, arousing tremors in places other languages can’t reach. Kinda makes the occasional phone scam worth the swindle.

Sounds like: The THX intro with teeth

4. Czech
Smoky eyes? Czech. Intrguing history? Czech. Meat-flavored accent? Czech.

Famous tongues: Petra Nemcova, Jaromír Jágr

Like Russian, without the nettlesome history of brutal, iron-fisted despotism, Czech is a smoky, full-bodied vocal style that goes well with most meats. Murky and mysterious, the Bohemian tone is equal parts carnal desire and carnival roustabout.

Sounds like: Count Dracula, secret agent

3. Spanish
"¿Número tres? ¿Qué clase de idiota eres?" Ah, no one rejects us so hotly.

Famous tongues: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz

Sensual and beckoning, but with the passion to unleash hell kept just barely restrained, Castilian is like a dialectic Hoover Dam. But then there’s the lisp. Tender, vulnerable and cute as a baby’s hangnail -- no one owns the “th” sound formed by tongue and teeth like those who speak the language of Cervantes.

Sounds Like: An outboard motor on Lake Paella

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2. French
Even when they pout it sounds good.


Famous tongues: Sophie Marceau, Jean Reno

The demotion of this perennial prizewinner of global brogues to second place may illustrate the declining sexuality of Old World petulance. Still, the come-hither condescension and fiery disinterest of the French tongue remains paradoxically erotic.

Sounds like: A 30-year-old teenager



1. Italian
Even when bathing in a fountain, a romance language is a romance language.


Famous tongues: Monica Bellucci, Alessandro Del Piero

Raw, unfiltered and as grabby to ears as its president is to rears, the Italian accent is a vowelgasm that reflects the spectrum of Italic experience: the fire of its bellicose beginnings … the romance of the Renaissance … the dysfunction of anything resembling a government since Caesar. Insatiable, predatory and possessive, this is sex as a second language.

Sounds like: A Ferrari saxophone

Which is your favorite accent? Vote here on our Facebook poll.

First published August 2011, updated November 2012
SOURCE-http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/worlds-sexiest-accents-130333








Why we hate our accents and try to sound american or British, somewhere we re being rated one of the sexiest accents in the world....let us love and embrace our accent. something good abt 9ja at last...lol, what do you think?

Henceforth, no more unnecessary twisting of my tongue to pronounce one yeye words; I will be pronouncing 'OIL' as 'OYEL', 'VIDEO' as 'FIDEO', 'CHEW' as 'SHEW', 'SHORT' as 'SORT'.

IT IS A FAT LIE

gwas: Henceforth, no more unnecessary twisting of my tongue to pronounce one yeye words; I will be pronouncing 'OIL' as 'OYEL', 'VIDEO' as 'FIDEO', 'CHEW' as 'SHEW', 'SHORT' as 'SORT'.

Nd what is d meanin ov the post now, expectin me 2 cng my tongue, imposible

Old news, was on the front page sometime last year.

virgo:

If you try that, all you will be getting is "pardon me" which can be very annoying

Must they add 'phone scam' just 2 pass a message? Mtchew

this is so old...it's older than the subsidy fiesta wahala sef

5th sexiest ko, sexfull ni

I tink say na recent news sef!

Number 8. That shit just sounds uneducated.

so why una dey tell us?
Hw thar 1 take affect d price of fuel 4 9ja

Yoruba accent is the sexiest in naija

YOU MUST BE YOKING

for reals?

U guys should stop deluding urselves

crazygod: Yoruba accent is the sexiest in naija

shut up jor! Its hausa

So which accent represents Nigeria?

Yoruba?
Waffi?
Igbo?
Hausa?
Ijaw?
Bini?
Effik?
Idoma?
Fulani?
Nupe?

Which one exactly?

silly article posted by an ignorant person. (if you aren't ignorant, you wouldn't have posted this).

Nigeria is too diverse to have one particular accent.

The same story we hear every year and none of our accent is used in any English dictionary word.

Pronouncation of Amoeba

Naija: Amo-eba

US/UK: Ame-ba

gwas: Henceforth, no more unnecessary twisting of my tongue to pronounce one yeye words; I will be pronouncing 'OIL' as 'OYEL', 'VIDEO' as 'FIDEO', 'CHEW' as 'SHEW', 'SHORT' as 'SORT'.

Those are Yoruba accent -- we are talking about Nigeria's English accent (Nigerians use of English)

So what's the essence of the thread? it's irrelevant things that you will find Nigeria taking a good position .smh

ItsModella: Is this not the same thing I saw last year? Old news jare...

Am voting and campaigning for you, you are here reading old news

So? Imagine this lame article made the front page

honeric01: So which accent represents Nigeria?

Yoruba?
Waffi?
Igbo?
Hausa?
Ijaw?
Bini?
Effik?
Idoma?
Fulani?
Nupe?

Which one exactly?

silly article posted by an ignorant person. (if you aren't ignorant, you wouldn't have posted this).

Nigeria is too diverse to have one particular accent.

they were talking about the way we speak our english

*in Nigerian accent* But this news is as old as the birth of Jesus nah, anyways, props to op sha. Still rocking ma accent

Old news. We must be 150 now.

Dis is d first positive news i have heard about nigeria on nairaland

honeric01: So which accent represents Nigeria?

Yoruba?
Waffi?
Igbo?
Hausa?
Ijaw?
Bini?
Effik?
Idoma?
Fulani?
Nupe?

Which one exactly?

silly article posted by an ignorant person. (if you aren't ignorant, you wouldn't have posted this).

Nigeria is too diverse to have one particular accent.

There is what is called Nigeria English Accent! Educated Nigerians have a particular way of speaking the English Language, It doesn't matter which tribe.

The only tribe that seems unrepentant is the Housa

really,infact the two celebrities are from my home country,omo i rep ondo city
Place of pride.