WNY colloquialisms and accents (New York, Buffalo: live in, military, areas)

[I'minformed2]

That very well could be it...Greece, Irondequoit and Gates all have very large Italian populaitons, where as Brighton, the P towns, and Mendon are more WASP.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

After a few years though. every time I would go back home for a visit, i'd notice the Rhaaaaaaaaach'str accent more and more.

I moved to Rochester for graduate school. The first night my wife and I were watching local tv stations, a locally produced ad for a furniture store came on. We broke out laughing when we heard the nasal, exaggerated AAAAAA sound in words like RAAAAAAAAchester.

[12buttons]

Originally Posted by garmin239

In Roch, I have noticed some difference in the way some of the old school west siders speak. I hear a lot more Italian-American slang amongst the middle aged people.

The hard R is ubiquitous ..you are quite right...The accent is very nasal, flat, and midwestern sounding..the women almost sound a little valley-girlish, and can be charming to my ears..it has a kind of innocence to it I guess..but quite honestly the male Upstate New York /Midwestern accent I always thought sounded a little too "joe six pack " if you get my drift..Even when they were really really smart the accent did not work in their favor. Take Vincent Gallo as the poster boy for Buffalo accent writ large.

By the way, if you take a few acting classes and you will lose the accent in a hurry - acting coaches take all the Buffalo out of your voice as lesson one... Wendy Malick lost hers ...

But Ron Insana still has his as does Tim Russert.

By the way, a friend of mine ran call centers for Blue Cross and he told me they liked using this region because the accent here gave the impression that they sounded friendly and honest so there ya go!

[jbertol2]

I think putting "the" before a route number, such as "the 90" is definitely a Buffalo thing and not a Rochester thing. It's not unique to Buffalo, though, as I know some people from California that tell me often about "the 5" and "the 101."

[Sean34597]

I read that Rochester is the nation's dividing line between the use of "pop" and "soda." To me this is a huge deal--way bigger than the Mason-Dixon line (otherwise known as the IHOP/Waffle House line). Why isn't there some kind of landmark up in Rochester to signify this? Why doesn't everyone know about it? To me Rochester should rename itself, "A City With Pop," or something to that effect. And you think I'm joking...

[Ham Sandwich]

Oh- here's another goodie--
"Sneakers" (E. Coast) vs. "Tennies" W. Coast

"Helmann's" mayoniase vs. "Good Foods" mayonise on the W. Coast..
They even have the same theme song, but they use different words!

[SteveT]

"ain it" after every sentence

everyone referred to as "cuz"

also "dem is" or "you's guys "

terms like "i don't know nothin" or "it didnt say nothin about that"

[warm heatherette]

I don't know whether WNY has influenced Ontario, or the other way around, but across the border we also use 'the" before highway route numbers (the QEW, the 401, etc). We also say "pop" instead of soda (I always thought that was a Canadian thing). I've noticed the 'eh' (typically asociated with Canada) in NYers speech too. The exaggerated 'r' may also be part of our speech. But the hard 'a', that's definitely unique to WNY.

[Pragmaniac]

oh no, oh nooooooo I hope this doesn't turn into a pop vs soda thread. Really, that should be its own thread. You can get all your questions answered over at popvssoda.com , then if you still want to talk about it, you may start a different thread.

Originally Posted by warm heatherette

I've noticed the 'eh' (typically asociated with Canada) in NYers speech too.

I have noticed "eh" cropping up in WNYers and I occasionally say it for "effect" when relevant but, scarily, I have used it lately in a spontaneous way.

[BuffaloTransplant]

I grew up downstate. I never "heard" LI/NY "speak" until I came here - never noticed it, anyway. My Mom raised me to speak unaccented English ( thank heavens) [I generally got taken for a Canadian!]

Another difference here is the word "sub" for NY "hero". You get a lot of dropping the word "the" lately -- used to be "to the hospital", now, you here "to hospital" ( picked up from Canada)

The "A" pronunciation, BTW, is the one used in the Webster's dictionary.