Regretting my move (New York, Buffalo, Albany: transfer to, school, salary)
Albany areaAlbany - Schenectady - Troy - Saratoga Springs metro area
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I grew up in the Capital District and we had a very neutral accent. The people who moved to the area from New England and downstate stuck out like a sore thumb. It was the same as you'd find along the northern steel belt, the PNW, California, Colorado, Utah--just neutral. You couldn't whether that someone was from Albany, NY or Albany, OR.
I'm back to visit regularly and I still think that overall it's neutral--there is no accent.
Yeah, that's what I meant. I grew up there too and never thought anyone had an accent. I guess you never think of people from your own neck of the woods having an accent. It's only people from somewhere else that have accents .
Having lived in two places with marked accents (NJ & the South) since leaving Albany, I still feel that Upstate NY (northern Dutchess and above) has a neutral accent.
Albany has a mix of accents, actually. There's general American (the one the posters above are referring to). If you're more educated, you're more likely to have this accent (or lack thereof). Then there's the northern midwest accent, a.k.a the Chicago accent, or the northern cities vowel shift. If you look on linguistic maps this accent goes as far east as Utica, but there are plenty of speakers here, I hear them everyday. For some reason a lot of mainly middle aged women possess this accent. These are the same people who use the dreaded glottal stop instead of pronouncing their Ts ("not" becomes "nah[(uh)". The sentence, "It's hard to park the car near the back of the bar" sounds like "Its haird to pairk the care near the bee-ick of the bare" in this accent. If you know anyone from Buffalo or Rochester, there's a good chance they have the same accent. Then there's a subtle downstate accent that some people have. They sound "normal" except they leave off the occasional r, so that "Yesterday afternoon in Guilderland" sounds like "Yestaday aftanoon in Guildaland." Then there's a small influence from the western New England accent, most prominent amongst northern Vermont transplants. And, like most places in this country, many, many teenage and 20-something females have the valley girl accent.
So as see, it's not a cut and dried as you might think.
There is not a Northern Cities Vowel Shift in Albany or surrounding suburbs among native residents. Have you lived anywhere with a NCVS? I went to college in Rochester and can say that there is not a NCVS here. Not that there is anything wrong with NCVS, I find it sexy actually, but Albany doesn't have it.
The mayor, Jerry Jennings, has what I consider to be an Albany accent, but it is dying out among younger generations. I have it to a much smaller degree than my parents and grandparents.
Having lived in two places with marked accents (NJ & the South) since leaving Albany, I still feel that Upstate NY (northern Dutchess and above) has a neutral accent.
Local accent is atrocious? Sorry, eastern New York has a very neutral accent. The more annoying "midwest" accent (think of Michell Bachman) starts west of Albany (maybe around Amsterdam). Googe Images for American accents and you will see the line.
When I lived in the Hudson Valley area, didn't recognize any "accent," of course you don't when you're a part of it. Moved away, but when I spoke w/ people there, I could hear it for sure! All of the awwww's and yaaaaa's exagerated I guess. And, some NYC accent thrown in a bit, too. Here in Central NY, there's an accent, too. It's got a bit of a twang to it? Not sure really how to identify it; it's different than the Hudson Valley area though.
There is not a Northern Cities Vowel Shift in Albany or surrounding suburbs among native residents. Have you lived anywhere with a NCVS? I went to college in Rochester and can say that there is not a NCVS here. Not that there is anything wrong with NCVS, I find it sexy actually, but Albany doesn't have it.
Not correct. Plenty of people have it here. One of my ex-coworkers has it (heavily), and she's from Washington County of all places. I hear it all the time. It may not be as heavy or as prevalent as out west, but it's here. As I explained in my post, it's mostly women that seem to have it.
Not correct. Plenty of people have it here. One of my ex-coworkers has it (heavily), and she's from Washington County of all places. I hear it all the time. It may not be as heavy or as prevalent as out west, but it's here. As I explained in my post, it's mostly women that seem to have it.
I don't think you have lived anywhere that really does have NCVS then, because no Capital District native does.
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