February 25, 2008
New York City Accents Changing with the Times
Besides killing Mom ‘n’ Pop stores and displacing low-income residents, the rapid gentrification seen in some New York neighborhoods may be flushing the city’s famous working class dialect down the terlet.
A group of linguists interviewed by amNY say while predicting the future is impossible, there has been a dilution of that classic working class accent familiar to the world through movies and TV shows (here’s a good example of Archie Bunker’s New York speech as he holds forth on the sinister Democratic party).
The loss of the working class New York dialect is most prevalent in Manhattan, where the old money Mid-Atlantic accent, ala George Plimpton and Julianne Moore’s Maude Lebowski (YouTube clip), is also heading for obsolescence as newer generations perceive it as pure affectation. The blue collar accent is often thought of as specifically Brooklyn, but linguistic research proves that wrong, according to NYU doctoral candidate Kara Becker:
Linguistically we haven't been able to identify these borough differences. What we find is that we've got this New York City dialect that's accentuated by more working-class speakers. So depending on your occupation or your education, you may use more of these features, but it's not geographically distinct as far as we know.Walt Wolfram, an English Linguistics professor, tells amNY the dialect has survived for so long in part due to a sort of feedback loop brought on by cinematic depictions of working-class New York. As the stereotype gets reinforced on TV or film, some New Yorkers in turn emulate the personas the outside world expects to see. But with the ethnic makeup of working class New Yorkers shifting toward immigrants from Asia and Latin America, the New York accent of the future may belong to Benetton.
Here's NYC24 on Noo Yawk Tawk, a 2003 New American City article about New York losing its accent, and Wikipedia on New York dialect, not to be confused with New Jersey English.
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Very interesting. Is there a way that I can find out what dialect I speak?
Good riddance.
#1, yes, there are a bunch of sociolinguistics quizzes online.
fugheddaboudit!
All the national news anchors "tawl like they aaare from connecticut" by over enunciating everything.
Think of christian bale in american psycho.
this might be better "taaalk like the arrrre from coNNECTiCUT"
yeah that's more like it.
As a librarian in the public libraries of the Bronx (I move around), I've noticed that there is a distinct accent among many liberry users.
My favorite is the David Spade fan who has been asking for Joe Doyt.
Thanks for that illuminating wikipedia link.
Diphthongs scare me, however.
Great. Everyone here is going to sound like they're from Ohio. Oh wait. They already do.
There are plenty of people left in New York who ax people--questions, that is. We are in no fear of getting any smarter.
"You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying?" I say that after every sentence. I keep the streets alive in my speech.
So I says to the guy, you know what I says? I says, hey.
What is considered a "New York Accent" is well and alive out on Long Island...
But then again, I would think most dipshits from out of state who move here would not know that.
New Yorkers come from all over the world. I do not mind different accents, except for one:
City Girl Squawk: It's Like So Bad. It. Really. Sucks?
Ironically, some of the people at Gothamist have been infected by that accent. I know many people who comment also have the same accent. You can tell, as they. Like. Totally. Write. Things. Like. This. Worst. Accent. Ever. Dude.
Wow, that's a priceless line.
Stupid people from freaking Iowa don't know how to speak English right. Don't even no how to even say manicotti right! Stupid people from Ohio don't get that we wait on a freaking line here. Go wait in a freaking line for the plane back to Columbus!
Stupid people from freaking Iowa don't know how to speak English right. Don't even no how to even say manicotti right! Stupid people from Ohio don't get that we wait on a freaking line here. Go wait in a freaking line for the plane back to Columbus!
I live this country many many years and not find problem with english speak people from Ohiodaho. They all welcome at my store, here this country.
This is a very bizarre subject, and the academics clearly have no good answer for it. I'm probably one of the actual last 'middle class' people to grow in up in NYC (born it '77). I went to the 'smart' public schools, and I had my New Yaawk accent drilled out of me my conscientious hippie teachers, but neither of my parents went to college. Whenever I travel outside the greater NYC area, people always ask if I'm English. I feel that accents have much,much more to do with economic class than geographic location. However, get a few drinks in me, and I'm right up there with Archie Bunker. Archie bunker reciting Milton.
There appears to be a falling off of the "traditonal" New York accents because the old timers have moved on. I had a good friend of mine that always said "drawring" rather than drawing. So when he had two daughter's named Samantha and Jessica, I called Samanthar and Jessicar.
Re. #15's comments: I don't know whether this is intended to be sarcastic but I'm always amused by native New Yorkers who feel they're more enlightened but then make blatantly misinformed, parochial statements about the rest of the country.
Incidentally, often thicker accents are tied to class distinctions and related insecurities about one's place in society.
I once read how there are/were distinct accents by boro, i.e. Bronx was different than Brooklyn. An emergency dispatcher related how she was able to correctly peg the boro a caller was located before the address was relayed. Obviously this story goes back to before tech advancements like caller i.d., but subtle differences in accent by boro do still exist.
With a higher education from good schools and regular exposure to Ohiodohans, to my chagrin, I can't shake my Avenue U accent!
Anyone looking to pick up the Kew Gardens dialect of the accent, should rent the Ghostbusters flicks and listen acutely to the character Annie Potts played. She nails it.
What is an accent, other than a deviation from some norm of pronunciation? Growing up on the outskirts of NYC in the tri-state area, there was no valley girl or surfer dude talk, no old money New England-y George Plympton accent, no Boston ahksent to speak of, no Southern drawl, or Texan twang, no midwestern halting stutter. I thought I thought spoke without an accent because I spoke in the same style as Chuck Scarborough on Live at 5, or most people on TV who weren't being lampooned as outsiders.
That accent, however, isn't a style as much as it is just featureless and flat, with little vocal embellishment. Perhaps that why it's the lingua franca of accents. It's the esperanto and least nuanced of accents, and therefore most widely understood. To mistake deviation from that norm as a sign of lesser intelligence is a terrible mistake.
Where and who will be the next George Plympton appear?
Re:#1, there are regional dialect maps available from the phonological atlas project at UPenn -- you can compare your speech to the speech of example speakers from various dialect groups to determine which dialect you speak:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html
Re:#1, there are regional dialect maps available from the phonological atlas project at UPenn -- you can compare your speech to the speech of example speakers from various dialect groups to determine which dialect you speak:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html
A similar thing is happening in Chicago, though I don't have anything to cite...just anectodal evidence. The working class Chicago accent is disappearing, and becoming more a traditional upper midwest nasal accent.
You really only see the proper accent among older guys on the South and Northwest Sides and, of course, police and firemen.
Interesting piece with an appropriate amount of both idiotic and intelligent commentary afterward. One factual correction, though: the magazine here --
http://americancity.org/article.php?id_article=79
-- is called "Next American City," not "New American City." I'm sure someone regrets the error.
@Tower18: Yous got it, brudder."