Why Doesn't The Black Community in NYC Have a Southern Twang to its Accent? (Buffalo: gated communities, to live in)

[Pruzhany]

I think y'all are confusing southern accents with inner city street accents. Some of y'all have no idea what a southern accent is. By what some of you type as being southern you'd think we are all hillbillies from the mountains of WV. Mispronouncing a word in a southern fake accent does not make it a southern word.

[eek]

dragging out words, putting an "ow" in words like all, ball, doll, etc. saying thang, etc. is a southern thing.
i don't think anybody here is confused at all. the above is definitely not street. there is no street accent.

i think some ppl are confusing accent with slang.

[*SunsetSkies*]

From my experinces, all black people sound the same.

[eek]

you need more experiences, then.

[Violett]

Originally Posted by *SunsetSkies*

From my experinces, all black people sound the same.

Originally Posted by eek

you need more experiences, then.

LOL @ this exchange


I had an African-American roommate in college who had family (also African-American) who lived down south (we were in MD at the time) and she said she couldn't understand half of what any of them said.

I can see what some people are saying though. Relative to itself, the black american english accent sounds more similiar to itself (regardless of the state of origin) than it does to other English accents (white american, irish, scottish, etc.).

Also, Latino accents (from Latin American Spanish speaking countries) sound more similiar in English regardless of the country the Latino is actually from.

That being said, slight tweaks as well as grammar can tell you if a person comes from where you grew up. I can go up or down a state and tell if another person came from my state, based solely on grammar and word usage, if they're speaking freely and not trying to sound uber-professional or formal.

[K.O.N.Y]

Originally Posted by Violett

I can see what some people are saying though. Relative to itself, the black american english accent sounds more similiar to itself (regardless of the state of origin) than it does to other English accents (white american, irish, scottish, etc.).

Thats ridiculous. Of course a scootish person would sound different from an rish person. Two different nationalities. Its like comparing a black american accent, to a african accent, to a caribbean accent etc. They all sound different from each other........but they all black lol

[SuperMario]

To me AA in NYC sound more like Italians and Irish than they do southern/midwestern/western AA.

I think it's a mixture of both in a way, but I could hear the NY in them.

[Violett]

Originally Posted by K.O.N.Y

Thats ridiculous. Of course a scootish person would sound different from an rish person. Two different nationalities. Its like comparing a black american accent, to a african accent, to a caribbean accent etc. They all sound different from each other........but they all black lol

What I'm saying is American black folk all sound more like each other than they do they're respective states. A few exceptions like NYC notwithstanding.

[K.O.N.Y]

Originally Posted by Violett

What I'm saying is American black folk all sound more like each other than they do they're respective states. A few exceptions like NYC notwithstanding.

I would say the northeast overall has a different sound than the rest of the states

[*SunsetSkies*]

Originally Posted by eek

you need more experiences, then.

I've had enough. Blacks speak in Ebonics, which is not even proper English in the first place.