Results tagged “nooyawk”

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.

Earlier this week, the Daily News ran a story about people looking to lose their New York accents. Sam Chwat, who founded New York Speech Improvement Services - and has worked with Julia Roberts and Andie MacDowell, and is even working with the cast of Glengarry Glen Ross for their Chicago accents - says many of his clients are trying to rid themselves of the "streetwise image of fast-talking New Yorkers."

"If you spend your life in a particular community, like New York's Irish, Jewish or Chinese communities, then there's no reason to speak any differently. But if you cross the border into new communities, then you sound different. People listen to how you speak, and they make judgments from that."

Eh, judgments are made all around. Making fun of our cowpokey President's Texash twang, our neighbors' way up North saying "aboot," and noting that some New Englanders "pahk the cah." Gothamist's favorite movies of New Yorkers losing their accents are Working Girl and Radio Days: "Hawk! I heah da cannons rauw! Is it da king approachin'?"