Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
north jersey accents are a subset of the greater nyc area accent.
south jersey accents are a subset of the greater philly area accent.
the closer you are to nyc, the more similar the accent gets.
the closer you are to philly, the more similar the accent gets.
in parts of central jersey that have influences from both cities (e.g. mercer county), you can hear elements of both.
and in more remote parts of the state such as deep south jersey around the pine barrens, there's a completely distinct/country-sounding accent that outsiders would never associate with nj in a million years.
i should also note that MANY people who grew up in nj/nyc/philly do not have any sort of local/regional accent. i grew up in queens and north jersey, and yet i speak with a neutral/standard accent (and i'm hardly alone). people are always shocked when i tell them where i'm originally from, yet if you were to hear me speak with some (not all) of my childhood friends, you'd see that neutral accents aren't that unusual in the greater nyc/nj area, especially in wealthier communities but sometimes even among those of us who grew up with blue-collar folks.
i went to high school in urban north jersey, about 1 mile away from manhattan. tons of kids in my high school - mainly the ones who grew up in the inner city near the school - had thick, blue collar north jersey accents. plenty of us did not, with the common denominator often being that we grew up in suburban towns.
either way, it would be interesting to see if the people who claim to love the nyc accent but hate the nj accent could actually distinguish between the two. for instance, i wonder if they could identify my blue collar high school classmates as being from north jersey and my childhood friends as queens or brooklyn natives. go ahead, i bet 99% of you couldn't distinguish the two if your lives depended on it.
ya gotta hand it to the jersey haters, though. they think they know it all about the garden state, and yet they don't know jack.
and to echo openheads' point above:
i have literally never heard a single person in new jersey pronounce the state name as "joisey". NO ONE. not even in my inner city high school with more than a few kids who had super thick accents.
anyone who has lived in nj knows that a blue collar new jerseyan with a thick local accent pronounces it something like "jurr-zee", with the tongue pushed back toward the throat. hard to describe in words, but instantly recognizable to those of us who grew up hearing it.
here's a short video in which bill parcells and other north jersey natives (all of whom have distinct north jersey accents) speak about what it means to be from the state. pay close attention to how they say "jersey" - THAT'S how the locals pronounce it, not "joisey":
Good post. Agree on NJ mostly either a NY influence or Philly influenced accent when it exists. Also agree on the nuetrality though i find most from the area even with a mostly nuetral accent will have a few words that have the accent recognizable.
Lastly on NJ and the NY and Philly influences. one thting that surprises me personally is that many people outside the NE think Philly and NYC (and NJ for that matter) all have the same accent. To me they are completely different (as are North and South Jersey). I think I mostly have a nuetral accent though some words like water or daughter would probably provide the most pronounced accent for me personally and people here me say water and associate it with NY when this is dead give away for Philly (Philly and NY have to me as distinct accents as do NY and Boston)
Also agree the central NJ area is a bit of a hybrid but think some of that comes from it being a little bit of melting pot of North/South/Natives/Transplants.
Oddly in many ways the traditional South Philly accent can be more pronounced these days in S Jersey than in Phlly itself, though the NE Philly accent (especially above Frankford) is fairly distinct to me.
Least Favorite-LA, New York, SF, Boston, the south
Chicagoans have an accent?
Quote:
Originally Posted by believe007
For best I'd say I love the way Texans talk....so definitely a southern accent is good lol
Worst- Australian accents annoy the Hell out of me
When I posted that lol I didn't realize it's only considering the U.S.
So I love Southern accents, love Boston & New York accents also
But I just can't stand the way New Jersey people talk.
Best > The New York accent and the New Orlean's "Yat" dialect as both cities "Tawk" similar.
Worst > New Jersey
Haha this is funny. First of all, the NJ accent you're thinking of is a NY ACCENT. People in NJ who have the accent, are likely originally from NY, or very close to NYC in NJ. How can you love the NY accent but hate the "NJ accent"? It's an oxymoron.
Secondly, very few people in NJ even have that accent.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
