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I have also noticed that some people at work speak with a slight regional accent, but I have yet to figure out what is different about it. Anybody know anything about that?
I have also noticed that some people at work speak with a slight regional accent, but I have yet to figure out what is different about it. Anybody know anything about that?
Blue collar or white collar?
I've noticed that many local blue collar men have an accent, but I've always thought of it as more of a social class/lack of education thing.
Most white collar men from the Syracuse suburbs do not have any noticeable accent IMO.
When people say there is a "Syracuse accent" I think they are speaking about the blue collar men in the area. Some city hoods also have distinct accents. I believe there is a north side accent..... which basically sounds like a man trying to talk with a tough guy attitude. I'm not sure if he consciously chooses to speak like that or if it's really an accent.
There is an accent, in general, but it's not immediately apparent.
A LOT of very, very flat A's and extremely short O's. The further north you go, the more severe it gets. LOL- you know the movie Singin' in the Rain with Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly? And the blonde bombshell actress, Lena, and her horrible-awful-screeching accent? Well, the whole crew took the train from NYC to Cali for the making of the movie and they had a layover in Syracuse... and the working class in the train station inspired that horrible accent/voice. haha! Something to be prould of, I guess? An excerpt of the accent from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OkXi5osfU
A few phrases/words I've heard made fun of since I was a kid:
Were goin' uh driNK sum bEERs in Finnix! (We're going to drink some beers in Phoenix.)
Full-snappyloudishgrunt-in (Fulton)
Swig-uh (Oswego)
As for the North Side- I'm pretty sure that's a by-product of the strong Italian influence... it's a huge, old Italian immigrant area. And when the movie Rocky came out decades ago... well, I think that tough guy attitude hit just about every Italian community en masse. LOL. I think there are also quite a few northside Italians in Mattydale, since it's just behind it... I think they view Mattydale as a kind of Mecca since it's not in the city. If you've "made it", you have a house/family in Mattydale. That's their "moving to the 'burbs."
Last edited by proulxfamily; 12-16-2008 at 06:15 AM..
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An excerpt of the accent from the movie: 
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