it came to my attention today that a slow but deliberate assault has been occurring in the city of new york, and if the victim dies i will be among the many responsible for this tragedy.
according to an article in the ny post, the famed new york accent is dying. that's right, the days of “sawww-sage” and “cawww-fee” and phrases like “yoo tawwwhkin’ ta me?” are slowly becoming a thing of only mobster movies. sure, to the delicate ears of folks from outside the five boroughs the accent may seem harsh and jarring – but to them, so are the people from new york. while most new yorkers aren’t violent people, there's a part deep down in all of us that secretly likes knowing that sometimes, just the sound of our accent can make people think we can call vinny and get them knocked off.
now, i admit that somewhere in the 1990’s, when i thought perhaps i would be an on-camera reporter, i made a conscious effort to lose my accent (because i knew “reportin’ live from the white howse” wouldn’t fly). while my career took a different path, i did successfully manage to neutralize much of my accent. that being said, my point, and i do have one…is that you may be able to take the new york accent out of the girl, but you can never take out the new york pride. so as we approach valentine’s day i'd like to send a big freakin’ wet kiss and a “how you doin’” to the city of new york. accent or not i've always got your back! what’s your point on this topic?
most of the people our age in nyc don't have those accents... they sound terrible anyway!
ReplyDeleteI miss the ole' NY accent. My family is from RI and their accents are pretty close. Maybe we get lots of RIers to move to NYC to keep the dream alive.
ReplyDeletei happen to think that the new england and ny accents compliment each other in a unique way. in new england they randomly add r's to the end of words like - idea-r...meanwhile, in ny they drop the r's of words that should end in r - like motha. so my thought is that new englander's pick up all the r's that the ny'ers drop, kind of like a no letter left behind program - a very green/recycling kind of accent program.
ReplyDeleteit is an interesting blog to read, coz i did not really think that NY had its accent! i remember my old friend from Atlanta told me that she went to NYC to learn how to speak "English" because she wanted to be able to speak her own language "properly" to become a teacher. since i am not an American, i thought English spoken in NYC was the standard American English! was it? or is it? i guess, like language, accent is also changing everyday without being noticed. do you think if there are any liguistic institution where people keep the record of changes in accent? it would be fun to listen to the changes. moreover, when i was in NYC, i met more people in Spanish accent than....... since there must be many migrants coming and staying in the city, do you think the accents migrants have affect "NYC accent/language"?
ReplyDeletethe blog makes me want to hear the all different accents in the states!
that would be fascinating to hear the evolution of an accent! when i was writing this blog i was also thinking about preconceived ideas/stereotypes based on accents. one of my colleagues said that the perception of new yorker's based on our typical accent is that we are aggressive, where as the stereotype of a slow twangy southern drawl is often ignorance. the impact of an accent can be big.
ReplyDeleteI think that the traditional NY accent is still fairly alive and well within the burrows themselves just not so much in the city itself. Being a recent transplant into NY I have noticed more and more in places like Brooklyn and the Bronx and Yonkers that the accent that you know and love is still fairly alive and well. I actually find myself talking with a twinge of a NY accent when i spend too much time in one area or another...somewhat interesting considering I spent 25 years in Jersey and came out with no real accent to speak of (thank god cuz he jerz accent is terrible!)
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't currently know anyone in my parents' Brooklyn neighborhood who is a native New Yorker. That's the problem. People come from all over the country to our city ('cause it's so wonderful) and they bring their "wahter" and "chahklit" with them. The same is happening in the city. I also tried to lose my accent - in high school. For the most part I've been successful. I've lived up and down the east coast for the past 12 years and people recognize I'm a Yankee, but are always surprised I'm from Brooklyn (until they see my attitude).
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