WHAT? No NY accent on some native New Yorkers? (Ridge: movies, income)

[SilkyCloud]

I've heard some NYC born Asians speak in Italian-American accents, aka that NY accent. Which is strange. I've yet to hear Italians speaking in a Chinese accent.

[11KAP]

^ i guess the italians never live in chinese hoods lol.

[Toronto416]

Interesting discussion. In Canada, among the younger (under 40) generations, the 'Canadian accent' has largely disappeared. It's just a fact of life with the last two decades of so many more TV options, music, and culture arriving from the US. Many of the kids in Vancouver talk just like the kids in San Francisco. In Toronto, it's hard to tell the difference between someone from there or from Minneapolis. The only exceptions are in the Maritime provinces, which still have an Old English flavour to their accents.

As well, I think places like NYC have so many transplants from other places that, similarly, there's a blend that kind of evens out that accent we hear on stereotypically New York City based shows. It is interesting though, in the US, how dialects and accents change so quickly - look at New York City and Buffalo. It is funny that I notice more of a stereotypical NYC accent in Florida than I do in New York! That difference is also apparent in Chicago compared with the southernmost towns in Illinois, which are closer to Jackson, MS than they are to Chicago. As you head west, this seems to level out - between Seattle, Phoenix and cities in California, I personally don't notice much of a difference in accents. I think that because Minnesota is so much farther north and tied into Canada, there is very little difference in dialect.

Sorry I got off on a tangent; I just find things like this interesting. But it's interesting...although I had years of French, Quebec French is quite difference from 'France French' - in many cases they won't understand you. Language is an amazing thing!

[bellakin123]

Originally Posted by SilkyCloud

I've heard some NYC born Asians speak in Italian-American accents, aka that NY accent. Which is strange. I've yet to hear Italians speaking in a Chinese accent.

I have never heard that. I've heard Chinese speaking with latino accents though and I've heard them speaking in "hip hop" or however one wants to call it..yo-yo-yo. The best was an Asian calling another Asian the "n" word with that hip-hop/gangsta tone lol

[nobody69]

Originally Posted by bellakin123

I have never heard that. I've heard Chinese speaking with latino accents though and I've heard them speaking in "hip hop" or however one wants to call it..yo-yo-yo. The best was an Asian calling another Asian the "n" word with that hip-hop/gangsta tone lol

Me neither, my chinese american friends that grew up in chinatown near little italy or my cousins that grew up near bay ridge don't have this at all. I have a philipino friend who grew up in Washington heights and she talks like a gangster and she's a modest working tax payer. The only accent's I've heard from Asians are either the accent of their ethnicity or gangster.

[Bronxguyanese]

Originally Posted by bellakin123

I have never heard that. I've heard Chinese speaking with latino accents though and I've heard them speaking in "hip hop" or however one wants to call it..yo-yo-yo. The best was an Asian calling another Asian the "n" word with that hip-hop/gangsta tone lol

ITs all ethnic, it depends on who you live around and you will pick up the accent. For example an Italian guy living around African Americans will speak African American vernicular English or a twist of both Italian NY and African American NY accents. A Greek chick living around Puerto Ricans will propbably pick up a Nuyorican accent. LIke me for example I have a Nuyorican accent or a fusion of Nuyorican and Guyanese English. Why do I have a Nuyorican accent? I grew up around mostly Puerto Ricans during much of my youth, Ricans had the biggest impact on my life, from best friends to first fights and first kisses was all with Puerto Ricans. So in sense Im more Rican than Guyanese, but lately I have been sheeding that off for something Waspy. I knew of an Asian American chick froim Central Brooklyn but she asks and speaks like a ghetto black girl.

[AmericanaManhasset]

Unfortunately, I don't have an original New York City Accent, my Accent is more Nassau-ish/Suffolk-heavy. People often think I live in Suffolk County instead of New York City. I think it's because I interact with people in Long Island more and eventually develop that accent. Keep in mind, I live in Queens and is American born Asian.

[nykiddo718718]

For the record the NYC metro area accent is not divided by ethnic group, borough, or neighborhood. It's SOCIOECONOMIC!

South Brooklyn, the East Bronx, East Queens, Staten Island have heavy stereotypical NYC accent and they are all largely "middle class". Same goes for parts of Jersey, L.I., and the Hudson Valley (Even to the fringes of the metro: central NJ, CT). Among the wealthy the accent is less pronounced and among those of the lowest incomes include the addition of significant NY area Hip Hop terminology.

[john_starks]

Originally Posted by nykiddo718718

For the record the NYC metro area accent is not divided by ethnic group, borough, or neighborhood. It's SOCIOECONOMIC!

South Brooklyn, the East Bronx, East Queens, Staten Island have heavy stereotypical NYC accent and they are all largely "middle class". Same goes for parts of Jersey, L.I., and the Hudson Valley (Even to the fringes of the metro: central NJ, CT). Among the wealthy the accent is less pronounced and among those of the lowest incomes include the addition of significant NY area Hip Hop terminology.

unfortunately, the truth

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by AmericanaManhasset

Unfortunately, I don't have an original New York City Accent, my Accent is more Nassau-ish/Suffolk-heavy. People often think I live in Suffolk County instead of New York City. I think it's because I interact with people in Long Island more and eventually develop that accent. Keep in mind, I live in Queens and is American born Asian.

Tawkin Lawn Guy Land

The odd thing about Long Islandese is that it doesn't actually exist - not as an entity distinct from old-time New York City speech. Dialect recapitulates history, and the sounds of the city's eastward suburbs - those twanging nasals, the diphthong drawl in "man," the A's of "call," "talk" and "mall" larded with W's - chronicle the great postwar migration eastward from Flatbush, Bushwick and Williamsburg.

"If you really want to hear a ripe Brooklyn accent, you go to Long Island," says Amy Stoller, a Manhattan-based dialect coach. Listen to a group of Massapequa teenagers, who wouldn't even know from Ebbets Field, and you can hear the echo of their stickball-playing grandparents. If those kids sound nothing like a clique from the next town over, it probably has less to do with geography than with ethnicity.

There are at least four different strands of New York-area accents, broadly defined by tribe: Italian, Jewish, Irish and Hispanic (the latecomethis dialectal stew). Blacks have adopted features of all these strains, but the strongest form of dialect, formally known as African-American Vernacular English, sounds much the same in New York as it does in Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.