Is the New York City accent gone? (2009, transportation)

[Fred314X]

To answer the OP: New York accent gone? Fuhgeddaboudit!

[Ninjahedge]

Originally Posted by Andysocks

i'm originally from LI and everyone i know from there says on line. or in a store, cashier calls "next on line." probably depends on class, what part of the island, etc.

Hmm.

I have always been told to "get in line" where I stand "on line".......

[TANaples]

What is a New York accent? I think most people think of a NY accent as a Brooklyn accent. Is there a Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan, or STATEN ISLAND accent? I don't think so. Years ago, I think it had more to do with ethnicity; as in Italian, Jewish, etc. Maybe there is an "old time" Brooklyn or Queens accent, but I don't think the other boroughs really speak like that. I grew up in Manhattan. Most people I knew growing up didn't speak like Tony Soprano.

I live in Florida and hear all the time from people that they would never guess that I am from in NYC. They tell me they have have no idea where I am from.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Does anyone talk like Fran Dresher from the TV show the Nanny?

[DAS]

Originally Posted by TANaples

What is a New York accent? I think most people think of a NY accent as a Brooklyn accent. Is there a Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan, or STATEN ISLAND accent? I don't think so. Years ago, I think it had more to do with ethnicity; as in Italian, Jewish, etc. Maybe there is an "old time" Brooklyn or Queens accent, but I don't think the other boroughs really speak like that. I grew up in Manhattan. Most people I knew growing up didn't speak like Tony Soprano.

I live in Florida and hear all the time from people that they would never guess that I am from in NYC. They tell me they have have no idea where I am from.

My brother is like that, no one can tell where he is from except that he is from the northern part of the US. My sister in-law on the other hand has a heavy Bronx accent. When they travel to other parts of the country he has to repeat what she says a lot. When she is in NY no one would have any problem understanding what she says. She does only speak standard American english.

Yes there is a Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn accent. The Bronx and Queens sound closer to each other.

Manhattan does have an accent it is it's own NY accent. Where everything is said at a faster clip than the rest of the NE. You can hear it in Robert Dinero, Charles Rangel. Also Caroline Kennedy, remember how she was criticized so much for lack of public speaking ability, after she gave her television interview, when she decided to try to be a US Senator... All I kept thinking of while watching that interview was how "NY" she sounded. I expected her to sound like a wealthy, sophisticated person, but she sounded like most people I know, that are raised in Manhattan.

[TANaples]

Originally Posted by DAS

My brother is like that, no one can tell where he is from except that he is from the northern part of the US. My sister in-law on the other hand has a heavy Bronx accent. When they travel to other parts of the country he has to repeat what she says a lot. When she is in NY no one would have any problem understanding what she says. She does only speak standard American english.

Yes there is a Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn accent. The Bronx and Queens sound closer to each other.

Manhattan does have an accent it is it's own NY accent. Where everything is said at a faster clip than the rest of the NE. You can hear it in Robert Dinero, Charles Rangel. Also Caroline Kennedy, remember how she was criticized so much for lack of public speaking ability, after she gave her television interview, when she decided to try to be a US Senator... All I kept thinking of while watching that interview was how "NY" she sounded. I expected her to sound like a wealthy, sophisticated person, but she sounded like most people I know, that are raised in Manhattan.

Since everything else goes at a very fast pace, I suppose speaking would also. Hurry up and finish saying what you have to say, so I can speak too? I have noticed this especially in talking with people from the South. Sometimes they will say to me, "What?" "Slow down". "I didn't understand a word you said". My husband is from Queens. Now that I think about it, he, too, speaks much slower than I do.

Interesting.

[eek]

i promise you that ppl from queens don't speak slower than ppl from bk, bx, manhattan, or staten island.

there is no "bk accent" or "queens accent." and how could ppl from the bronx and ppl from queens sound the same but ppl from bk don't? bk and queens are on long island and the bronx is not. that would be crazy.

if anything, bk, queens and long island ppl would sound the same and ppl from the bronx and manhattan would sound the same.

IMO, we all have the same accent. different ppl sound differently. not everyone is going to say everything in the same way but GENERALLY, we do.

[DAS]

Originally Posted by eek

i promise you that ppl from queens don't speak slower than ppl from bk, bx, manhattan, or staten island.

there is no "bk accent" or "queens accent." and how could ppl from the bronx and ppl from queens sound the same but ppl from bk don't? bk and queens are on long island and the bronx is not. that would be crazy.

if anything, bk, queens and long island ppl would sound the same and ppl from the bronx and manhattan would sound the same.

IMO, we all have the same accent. different ppl sound differently. not everyone is going to say everything in the same way but GENERALLY, we do.

I'm bored and just want to debate a little. Keep in mind that these are generalizations and that these opinions apply more to Natives of each boro, and not people that have moved from boro to boro. You are correct though we all sound more alike overall from NYC than different.

People from the South Bronx and Northern Manhattan sound similiar. However Manhattan people speak at a faster clip. This is probably because of the movement of people from upper Manhattan over to the South Bronx.

People from throgneck and other Eastern sections of the Bronx sound similiar to Whitestone and other Northern sections of Queens. This is probably because of the movement of people from the Bronx to Queens.

People from areas of Eastern Brooklyn that connect with Western Queens sound similiar to each other. It is a different accent than the East Bronx, Northern Queens one. The eastern part of Queens has a slightly different slower paced accent.

Remember slower paced in NYC is still faster than anywhere else in the NE.

I would say most of Staten Island sounds like Brooklyn, but people from all boros live there so it is more of a combination of them all.

[K.O.N.Y]

Where sitting here acting like the boroughs are states or something, where you gotta drive 70 miles just to get from one borough to the next. Accent doesnt go by borough. In my expierance the differance rest soley on ethnicity. A puerto rican in brooklyn will sound similar to a puerto rican in the bronx. Theres a classic new york accent for blacks,puerto ricans,italians,irish and jews.

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by K.O.N.Y

Where sitting here acting like the boroughs are states or something, where you gotta drive 70 miles just to get from one borough to the next. Accent doesnt go by borough. In my expierance the differance rest soley on ethnicity. A puerto rican in brooklyn will sound similar to a puerto rican in the bronx. Theres a classic new york accent for blacks,puerto ricans,italians,irish and jews.

I think you are wrong about accents being based solely on ethnicity,although ethnicity is important.There were( and still are to a lesser extent) variations based on geography.The important element here is where in a given country people come from.Italians in Northern Italy do not all speak with the same accent.Some argue that they don't even speak the same language.In the early 20th century ,when waves of immigrants were coming here from different sections of different countries, they usually migrated to neighborhoods where others from their hometown had settled.This created a situation where the vast majority of Italians who wound up in Bensonhurst may have come from from one area of Italy while most of the Italians who migrated to the East Bronx may have come from another .Each group added the peculiarities of their regional dialect to their learned English and created a situation where the accent of different neighborhoods was distinguishable.

All of this is slowly fading away of course but the remnants are still there.Often,you have to be one of them to hear the differences .The people from an old line of Bensonhurst can probably easily discern someone from Morris Park while you might not hear it.

I grew up in an Irish ghetto in Boston and I can tell you there are many different Boston accents.You might hear one but I can hear many.The neighborhood I grew up in( in Cambridge actually) was almost exclusively populated by irish immigrants from County Kerry,on the southern tip of Ireland.It is known as Kerry Corner.The immigration from Kerry to that section of Cambridge started in the mid 19th century and has continued to today.People who grew up there speak with a different accent than the Irish in South Boston,most of whom come from different areas of Ireland.Same is true for the Italians.There is more than 1 Italian American Neighborhood in Boston and in one almost everyone traces their roots to the Naples area while in another people trace their roots to someplace in the North.

You will hear all of these people speak and just say they have a Boston accent while because I grew up in Boston, I hear them and can tell whether they are Irish from Cambridge or Irish from Southie or Irish from Dorchester or Italian from East Cambridge or Italian from East Boston.
Same was true for all immigrants from different sections of other countries as well.

Same is true for our Southern accent.You hear just a southern accent.They can tell exactly where in the south some other southerner comes from.

Geography does matter..a lot.