New York Accent

Dani   Thursday, January 06, 2005, 15:53 GMT
The New York accent definitely sounds like a Sicilian accent to me. If you heard Sicilians speaking Italian you would understand. The "r" is the same and it's very similar.
Real New Yorker   Friday, January 07, 2005, 03:03 GMT
I'm from New York and what people don't realize is that not all native New Yorkers have that stereotypical Brooklyn brogue. I find it quite offending to travel around the country and when they hear me talk they say, "No, where are you originally from"? They are quite surprised to hear that I am New York born and bread.
Adam   Monday, January 10, 2005, 19:16 GMT
I'm currently in California, but was raised in New York City. The type of English I speak nearly sounds similarly to British English, except I frequently subsitute t's with d's like all Americans. A few people have even asked me whether I'm British.
Ben   Monday, January 10, 2005, 21:01 GMT
Some points about the New York Accent:

The basis for a New York Accent is that it was originally a combination of British English and Dutch, since those were the two groups that originally settled in NYC. You can still hear both influences on the dialect; New Yorkers often (unlike most of America) drop the r's at the ends of words like the British, and pronounce words like "caught" and "ball" with a very rounded vowel similar to the Brits.

Furthermore, New Yorkers have some dialect characteristics of the English spoken in Britain several hundred years ago; for example, the rounded vowel used in words like "off" and "dog" ("awf" and "dawg" in New Yorkese).

As for the Dutch influence, you can hear this is some of the flattened vowels that New Yorkers use--for instance the way some Brooklynites will pronounce the word "bad" so that it almost rhymes with "bed."

However, New York English varies greatly depending upon the ethnic group with which the individual person is part of, which is partially why it is such a difficult accent to define. If you hear Irish-New-Yorker celebrities like Rosie O'Donnell or the Baldwin brothers, for example, you can definitely hear a trace of Irish brogue in their speech. The extreme accent that James Gandolfini uses on the Soprano's similarly has a very distinctive Italian musicality. Jewish New Yorkers have the most distinct accent of all, often heavily betraying their Eastern European roots.

Keep in mind, however, that many Middle- and Upper-Middle-Class New Yorkers don't speak with this accent, but rather a fairly standard American dialect (much in the same way someone from Birmingham, UK, might speak with a fairly standard British Estuary accent instead of the strong Brummie dialect.)
Damian   Monday, January 10, 2005, 22:34 GMT
Is it true that even within New York City itself accents vary between the boroughs making up the City? How does a Brooklyn accent, for instance, differ from that of Queens or the Bronx? There is a TV program on CH4 TV here in the UK at the minute called the King of Queens....it's a lod of rubbish really but as it's on at 8am I occasionally watch in a semi comatose condition in bed still, but even so the accents don't really sound much like NYC accents to my unaccustomed ears. To me they all sound like our friend New Yawka.
Lester   Monday, January 10, 2005, 23:24 GMT
Th = T.
Joey Tribbiani (the character) is a good example.
Ed   Monday, January 10, 2005, 23:38 GMT
Damina, How can you call The King of Queens rubbish? It's a great show but unfortunately also very much undersppreciated by the public.

Carrie has a Brooklyn accent, Richie does too, although his is a little over the top - sounds horrible to me.
Doug has more of a more Queens accent, although he's from Llong Island.
Ed   Monday, January 10, 2005, 23:40 GMT
Im sorry, I meant Damian, not Damina :-)
american nic   Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 02:50 GMT
It's hard to hear for most people, but Brooklyn is by far the most distinctive, with Queens and the Bronx being pretty easy to tell aprt from the rest. Other than that it is mostly ethnic/class.
Damian   Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 08:31 GMT
Ed:

No problem!.....I guarantee that not even a typo is sufficient impetus for me to change gender. Anyway, I'm not even sure if there is a female name Damina. It sounds as if there may be.... much like David and Davida I guess.

Sorry about my remarks about that program....no offence meant I assure you. It's just that it's on our channel so early in the morning and I am not really compos mentis enough at that time to appreciate it's finer qualities. I tune into something reasonably lighthearted at that time because, quite frankly, I cannae face the news channels right now.
rich7   Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 09:24 GMT
hey Adam when you say that about the t's and the d's you mean about the verbs in the past or all words?
american nic   Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 22:10 GMT
I would assume he's refering to replacing 't's with 'd's in the middle of words.
Adam   Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 23:53 GMT
I do so in words such as "little", "petty", etc. But I don't do so past tense verbs such as "admitted", "united", "defeated", etc.
Ben   Thursday, January 13, 2005, 17:26 GMT
The accents on the King of Queens are fairly mild, except for the Jerry Stiller character.

I live in Queens, but in a neighborhood that has so many immigrants that it's a bit hard to pick out someone with a native "Queens" accent.

Traditionally, the Bronx supposedly features glottal stopped t's similar to Cockney. I've actually found the more striking thing with the Bronx to be how much its modern accent has been influenced by black street English, even among white speakers.
Ed   Friday, January 14, 2005, 03:26 GMT
<<The accents on the King of Queens are fairly mild, except for the Jerry Stiller character. >>

And Ritchie, though he's no longer on he show.