W. Virginia sounds like your talking through sludge, but I rather like it for some reason, like I enjoy the smell of gasoline.
Maine is right up there. Frankly, so is native New York - most of the accents of the NY area grate on me, and it kills me when I hear myself picking it up.
DC accents bug the hell out of me - flat, blatting, nasal. Ottawa is the same way - maybe it has something to do with capital cities.
I can often pick out native Seattlites, but that doesn't mean I like it.
The southwestern-hispanic accent can get on your nerves - sometimes it's nice, and sometimes you want to yell "stop that sing-songy shit!" (This is probably the reason people dislike S.CA accents, too.)
I like most Texas accents (though some are outrageous, usually eastern rural ones). Accents from the inland areas of VA and the Carolinas can annoy me (particularly when they pick up strong hints of the population's origin, be it irish, scotish, Liverpool, german, whatever - but see WVA above), but generally I like slower southern speech far more than most N.E. accents. Too much talking too fast, and precious little to say (another bad habit it kills me to hear myself picking up). And southern vowels tend to be rounder and more modulated, less nasal and constricted. A much more pleasant sound overall.
There is a New Orleans accent that sounds just like Brooklyn. For some reason, the New Orleans version bugs me more than the Brooklyn version. (Brooklyn-ease has vowels pulled back in the throat, which is better than the nasal-frontal sounds of most North Easterners, even if brooklynites torture them into odd dipthongs.)
Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Poll:
What is the most grating American accent?
Boston?
Brooklyn?
Joisey?
Texas?
Other nominees?
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