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Hey guys,
Jersey girl here. Born in Philly, raised in South Jersey. I've only become aware of my accent in the past few years when it started as a discussion with a friend of mine from Fresno, California. When listening to me speak, she would point out that the most distinguishable things I said were: Dog, Coffee, Yeah (pronounced with a hard 'ea' dipthong as opposed to a Californian's 'yaah'), Water, Cherry (most of the people around here say 'churry' and 'strawburry'). The main problem is: you're going to have a ton of battles between people all over this tiny little state about how things are said. I say 'route' like 'out'; other people locally in the area may say it to rhyme with 'root'. Our New Jersey dialect is pretty much a bunch of dialects mixed together. I'm in Vineland, NJ; in this area there are a lot of Latinos and blacks. Surely you're going to hear a heavy spanish/jersey accent. If you travel over to the next town, which is Malaga/Franklinville, you'll meet a lot of "rednecks" who may or may not have a southern accent, but they most likely drive a pickup and have a car without tires in their back and/or front yard.
I did sit one night with some friends to discuss exactly what about our dialect made us unique and sometimes a bit difficult to understand. Even my friend from Cali noted that at times I'd say a sentence so fast that she didnt hear what I actually said. It then dawned on me that a lot of us tend to cut syllables out of words and then smush those words into the following words of the sentence. I'll try my best to do a couple examples: "I-un-rully-no"= I dont really know. When speaking quickly like most of us do, it almost sounds like the 'd' is not pronounced, and I noticed that my tounge barely touches the roof of my mouth when saying that sentence. Next example: Wouldin-you-jussrather go for a cupacoffee"= Wouldn't you just rather go for a cup of coffee?
There's so many others that I could sit and write a long list of words that we 'butcher'. It's just our accent, and maybe it's because we're always in such a rush that we don't have time for all those syllables, and T's and D's, etc. Don't call us blue collar, working class or trashy for that. I work in a business that has me on the phone all day speaking with people nationwide; while at work, I annunciate my words and speak as clearly as I can, so as to eliminate any syllable slashing, word slurring language I may have at home with my friends and family. Everyone has an accent. Embrace it, it's YOUR culture and background.
It just so happens that New Jersey has so many dialects that it would be too difficult to try to explain EXACTLY what it sounds like. Talk to 20 different people from all over Jersey and they will each sound a little bit different.
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