New Orleans YAT Dialect Accent Sounds New York (Baton Rouge, Metairie: transplants, home)

[urbanologist]

I'm new to Louisiana. I just moved to Baton Rouge so I still have a lot to learn here. Last year when I visited New Orleans for the first I noticed the New Yorkish type accent I keep hearing down there. When this lady cab driver was taking me to the French Quarter I noticed her voice sounded like a deep Brooklyn type accent. Now I use to live and work around New York transplants everyday in South Florida so can tell but this lady had me curious so I had to ask. When I ask her if she was from New York because of her accent she laughed and told me she has never even been to New York and had live in New Orleans all her life. She told me that it was a dialect she was raised with. I had no clue about the YAT dialect. I later did some research and come to find out New Orleans has several dialects.

I originally thought that everyone in New Orleans had the backwater cajun accent but boy was I really wrong. I later learned the YAT accent shared the same immigrant stock with Brooklyn-downtown accent. I find the history rather interesting. Apparently, the dialect goes back to the 19th century spanning many generations.

I'm curious to know if anyone on here has this accent or another dialect in the city. Just wondering...anyone lived or been in the 9th ward?



Here's an interesting video I found. How accurate is this?

[domino]

Yat = Brooklyn on quaaludes.

[MegDrew]

Wow, based on that video it's clear New Orleanians are totally stuck in the 80s! (Kidding). The video is very interesting. The first girl featured sounds VERY New York -- much like some of the Long Islanders I've been surrounded by for my entire life. Perhaps when I move to the area for good later this month, I'll be able to pass for a native!

[Pook77]

Something funny is that most people who've lived here all their life can distinguish between a Yat and someone from Brooklyn. I don't know how, but they do. My parents say I've acclimated to a certain Southern drawl, but, again, those who've lived here all their life can spot me as a transplant from across the room. You'll know you've been here a decent amount of time when you can decipher all the accents (some of them don't sound like English). One thing about New Orleans is that there are so many different native accents that not a single one is really "correct."

[urbanologist]

"There is a New Orleans city accent . . . associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans." - A. J. Liebling

[Pook77]

The accent is everywhere from those areas to far flung suburbs. I don't disagree with the origins but my proud Yat friends go off on a half-day tirade when anyone asks them if they're from New York. There are just so many different dialects here and most of them aren't foreign; most of them have a ton to do with socioeconomic class. I'm not speaking as a scientist, I'm speaking as an observer.

[lmcintyre1s]

Since I've started work down here, I've come across so many different accents...and I think it's awesome . There are a couple ladies who work in the office who definitely have the Yat accent, and I've heard anything from a standard American dialect ("plain" sounding) to those on the video and many more. One thing I've noticed (maybe it's just me) is that some dialects seem to be gender oriented. I have only heard females speak like the first two folks on the video, and I have only hear males speak like the guy on the bottom right square.

[Bluesmama]

I, too, have noticed that "the accent" sounds Brooklyn'ish. Some sound like an interesting mixture of Brooklyn-Deep South. While Louisianans have a different accent in the rest of the state, they still sound unique, too.

They all sound great. I love to listen to them and I miss it whenever I return home from a visit.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by urbanologist

I'm new to Louisiana. I just moved to Baton Rouge so I still have a lot to learn here. Last year when I visited New Orleans for the first I noticed the New Yorkish type accent I keep hearing down there. When this lady cab driver was taking me to the French Quarter I noticed her voice sounded like a deep Brooklyn type accent. Now I use to live and work around New York transplants everyday in South Florida so can tell but this lady had me curious so I had to ask. When I ask her if she was from New York because of her accent she laughed and told me she has never even been to New York and had live in New Orleans all her life. She told me that it was a dialect she was raised with. I had no clue about the YAT dialect. I later did some research and come to find out New Orleans has several dialects.

I originally thought that everyone in New Orleans had the backwater cajun accent but boy was I really wrong. I later learned the YAT accent shared the same immigrant stock with Brooklyn-downtown accent. I find the history rather interesting. Apparently, the dialect goes back to the 19th century spanning many generations.

I'm curious to know if anyone on here has this accent or another dialect in the city. Just wondering...anyone lived or been in the 9th ward?



Here's an interesting video I found. How accurate is this?

Where y'at baby. I'm a full blooded yat. Grew up in the 9th ward, moved to Metairie then to Destrehan but have never lost my yat accent. Most of my family moved to da parish and they still talk with a heavy accent also.

Ya know ya have a accent when people on a forum say ya type funny, lol.

busta

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by bustaduke

Ya know ya have a accent when people on a forum say ya type funny, lol.

busta

huh bra