Southerners and New Yorkers pronouncing bird as "boid"

I saw this mentioned somewhere but no one knew or explained a reason behind it. Here in the south, a few very old timers pronounce "ir", "er" or "ur" as "oi". It was also done by some old time NYers or New Jerseyites like Jimmy Durante and early Frank Sinatra. Does anybody know the origin of this and why it would show up in two so distinctly different accents?

The sounds in the two accents are not alike. The NY/NJ "oi" is more of a scha followed by "i". The Louisiana/Alabama/Mississippi Gulf Coast "oi" (if that's the Southern accent you're referring to) sounds more like a French "eu" followed by "i".

Deborah, forgive my ignorance but what is a "scha"? Is the difference you're talking about something like buh-eed (southern) as opposed to bo-eed (NY/NJ)? thanks

Deborah,

''scha'' was a typo for ''schwa'' I think.

Thank you, Smith. Yes, that was a typo. And, CB, that is the idea, except that I never heard anyone in NY or NJ actually say "bo-eed" -- only in old Bowery Boys movies. I'd say NYers and NJites say something that's close to "buh-eed" (maybe something between that at "bo-eed"). As for the first part of the diphthong as pronounced by Southerners, it's like the French "eu" or, in American terms, like the vowel in "turn", minus the "r". Those are the pronunciations I heard, at any rate.

I wouldn't know from personal experience, but I've read that the /OI/ pronunciation is an exaggeration and that it's really pronounced /3I/ - sort of like RP "er" followed by "ee".

I realise how dumb this may be but on the Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner show, a lot the characters spoke in what I think is that NY 'bo-ieed' accent. The stuttering rooster spoke differently - the one that'd always be telling his son "Ahm gonna teach ya haw da..." cause he was clearly a southerner. Those NY accent cartoons always seemed to have generational longevity, like the Flintsones.

Lazar, your description of the actual pronunciation of the "oi" sound seems right to me. I wonder, though, whether the definite "oi" that the Bowery Boys and Bugs Bunny said was actually the way it was pronounced in those days (the '30s and '40s).

posts, the rooster's name is Foghorn Leghorn. And you can hear him, and Bugs Bunny (my favorite cartoon character) and others here:

http://www.barbneal.com/looney.asp

The pronunciation of "Worcestershire" was discussed on another thread. Bugs Bunny demonstrates the real pronunciation. Go to the link posted above, click on "Bugs Bunny" and scroll down to "I shoulda gone to worstechire" (misspelled).

Yeah, in fact I live in the Worcester area (/wUst@`/ or /wUst@/).

Thanks for your input folks. I probably should have described the southern version as buh-eed. I am from the south and there are a few older people who speak this way. When I was in NY recently, I ran across a few older people and their pronunciation was more like "boid" but I'm not sure how I can describe that in writing. A good example is on Jimmy Durante's version of the song "As Time Goes By" where he pronounces world as "woild". Though it doesn't rhyme with "boil", it's close.

CB in US, the grandmother of one of my college friends, who was from Mobile, spoke that way.

After listening to some Groucho Marx .wav files at the same website, I think that Bugs exaggerates the "oi" sound.

http://www.barbneal.com/groucho.asp

There's are other examples, I'm sure, but I came across these:

grouch13.wav – early

grouch42.wav – heard

grouch62.wav (Groucho singing “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”) – a number of words, including furled and world

This is just New Jersey pronunciation as far as I know as seen in the ditty below "Toity Little Boids" (Thirty Little Birds):

Toity little boids
sittin' on a coib'
a choipin' and a boipin'
and eatin' doity woims
along came a squoit (squirt) named Moyt (Myrt)
and a floit (flirt) named Boyt (Bert)
They saw the toity little boids
sittin' on a coib
and eatin' doity woims.

General American is replacing this dialect too.

"Yeah, in fact I live in the Worcester area (/wUst@`/ or /wUst@/)."

I'd never heard of that city before, so I wikipediaed it and was surprised to find out it's the third-largest city in New England, behind only Boston and Providence. Always interesting to learn about new cities (well, new to me). I really should get out to the East Coast someday.

<< I really should get out to the East Coast someday. >>

In my day, one did not get OUT to the East Coast; one got BACK to the East Coast, and OUT to the West Coast!