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I seem to recall reading that the "NY Jewish" accent has some Slavic influence (in addition to Yiddish of course), due to heavy immigration of Russian Jewry, especially the Brighton Beach etc parts. A lot of it is not even so much strictly phonetic as in inflection, tone, etc.
African Americans from Philly and Boston don't have the southern twag either. I'm from Philly living down south and I hear comments like "Are you from the bronx"? "You have that city talk"! Some word Ive got called out on is how I say Philly,coffee,water etc.
The "New York accent" is broken down by socioeconomic status, not by race, national origin, or borough. It's also common throughout the entire metropolitan area, not just the city.
Generally, it is in decline due to the rapid demographic changes occurring.
For non-locals, that division is barely distinguishable. In most cases anyway.
Many people, (normally young) in the poorer neighborhoods tend to emphasize Hip-Hip terminology but besides that the pronunciation is virtually the same for the most common words (da, aint, wata, cawfee, fugget about it, ect). Hip-Hop influences the middle class to a lesser extent, again most commonly among the young and almost non existent among those over 40. The wealthier residents tend to have a much more robust vocabulary and as a result normally pronounce those words very articulately.
It's true, been research on this subject believe it or not.
The Great Migration was in the 40's and 50's - just three generations ago or so. I suppose that's not enough for a fairly intraverted community to lose their accents, which is why Detroit and New York African-Americans speak in a Southern dialect.
Modern Black New York dialect is becoming quite different because modern Black New Yorkers are very heavily Caribbean, not Southern US.
And as people above said, as for the classic white New York accent, its origins are somewhat obscure. There's definitely influence of foreign accents (dental t's and d's, etc.), but this is an insufficient explanation.
Blacks in NY have a very different accent from blacks in Detroit or the South, even though millions of blacks migrated to NYC during the great migration NYC already had it's own huge black population since colonial times that developed with the different poor working class groups but still keeping it's own black style and when Southerners moved up here they assimilated with the NY blacks.
Blacks in NY have a very different accent from blacks in Detroit or the South, even though millions of blacks migrated to NYC during the great migration NYC already had it's own huge black population since colonial times that developed with the different poor working class groups but still keeping it's own black style and when Southerners moved up here they assimilated with the NY blacks.
Yeah an African American from Detroit or the south sounds nothing like a new yorker. I just don't get why black people from northern places like Detroit, Chicago, and LA never adapted a more northern sound like Philly, New York, and Boston.
There is a long standing history of the nyc accent. Nyc accent is probably the 2nd most recgonizable english accent agter british english imo. The remenants of the dutch can still be heard in the nyc accent like for example the word stoop is dutch for steps. I'm not sure what impact the the germans and irish left on nyc english but I think the jews and the italians also some eastern europeans have the biggest impact on nyc accent. Many yiddish words are commnly heard in nyc like delicatessen and ******. I also. Have noticed that some puerto ricans that speak with a nyc accent simular to what italians speak. You guys should check out gangs of ny and hear the nyc accent of the mid 19th century.
As the first colonists I wondered if the accent was Dutch mixed with a British accent or something.w
Yeah an African American from Detroit or the south sounds nothing like a new yorker. I just don't get why black people from northern places like Detroit, Chicago, and LA never adapted a more northern sound like Philly, New York, and Boston.
I think because those cities had like basically no black population till the great migration so there was no established black community here to assimilate to. Plus the insular nature they might have had to avoid discrimination after coming right out of South, probably forced them to just stick together and not venture outside their culture so that accent probably stuck as a result of that as well.
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