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I haven't read thru all the posts here, but there is one distinct characteristic of the Conn accent. You will hear people here drop consonants in the middle of words especially T's. For example, mountain becomes moun - in
Also, on occasion people will add an r to words ending in vowels. For example, idea becomes idear.
I haven't read thru all the posts here, but there is one distinct characteristic of the Conn accent. You will hear people here drop consonants in the middle of words especially T's. For example, mountain becomes moun - in
Also, on occasion people will add an r to words ending in vowels. For example, idea becomes idear.
I don't know about the idear one, In all the times I lived here I only knew one person who ever talked like that. He also said mondee and fridee instead of Monday and Friday, he was one of my teachers. I know he wasn't from here, but I don't remember where he said he was from.
Being from California originally…now on the East Coast, to me you can easily hear the New England accident from Massachusetts/Rhode Island northward. However, most of the folks I talked to in Connecticut seemed to have no accent at all.
Also, I noticed that there is not really a New England vibe to most of Connecticut, at least in southern Connecticut where I’ve been. I think real New England starts in Massachusetts, or least it seems that way.
Also, I noticed that there is not really a New England vibe to most of Connecticut, at least in southern Connecticut where I’ve been. I think real New England starts in Massachusetts, or least it seems that way.
I agree. I posted this in another thread but feel it fits well in this one:
Perhaps there is no other state that embraces suburban lifestyle more than Connecticut. You have the Hartford area and its burbs, the New London area and its burbs, and then the NYC Metro area which includes the satellite cities of Bridgeport, Danbury, New Haven, Norwalk, Stamford and Waterbury. Actually more than 50% of the state's population technically lives in the NYC area and the majority of Connecticans are Yanks rooters. This doesn't mean that these people work in NYC everyday, of course, because towns near Waterbury can be a 90 minute drive into city limits.
Of course, it's still New England, but a different flavor of New England. You have white picket fences, stone walls, old clapboard homes, town greens and white churches less than a mile away from an interstate with signs warning you "Delay: Next 23 miles." CT certainly has some of the worst traffic in the nation - not what most people think about when they think 'New England'. Life is faster in central and southern CT than much of New England; people more impatient; more type A personalities; more "competition". Ruder (?), if you will.
If New England were going to be a state, anything west of the Connecticut river (in CT) would most likely object.
Being from California originally…now on the East Coast, to me you can easily hear the New England accident from Massachusetts/Rhode Island northward. However, most of the folks I talked to in Connecticut seemed to have no accent at all.
Everyone has an accent. But you're right that the dialect in most of Connecticut is a bit closer to "General American English" (and the speech of most of the West). However, there are differences if you listen for them - most people in CT pronounce words like cot/caught, don/dawn differently, whereas many Californians pronounce them the same. Also, some people in CT (like in the rest of New England) will pronounce words like "man" and "ham" almost like "mee-an" and "hee-am," which is very different from how they're pronounced in California or even neighboring New York. With a careful ear, you'll also hear a difference in the "ow" vowel in words like "down" and "about" compared to their common Californian pronunciation.
And for the record, the Rhode Island accent is quite different from that of eastern Massachusetts and points north. But they do both have the classic r-dropping feature.
My last "differences" thread. I created a map of the Northeast similar to my Midwest, South and West maps. Out of all regions, I'm least familiar with the Northeast, so I apologize if I have anything wrong.
One difference I noticed from looking at maps and reading books about the outdoors is the huge size of state lands that the 3 northern Mid-Atlantic states have saved.
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have saved millions of acres of land for the public by their own actions. They contrast very well with many other states, where the land was either saved by the Federal Government or not at all.
Yes, and this is why there are so few national parks in the Northeast. It's not like they don't have areas that are national park-worthy... it's just that the state governments have already stepped in and turned them into state parks and preserves.
One difference I noticed from looking at maps and reading books about the outdoors is the huge size of state lands that the 3 northern Mid-Atlantic states have saved.
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have saved millions of acres of land for the public by their own actions. They contrast very well with many other states, where the land was either saved by the Federal Government or not at all.
Teddy Roosevelt had great foresight when he (as governor) pushed for the setting aside of the Adirondack Park preserve, which is a huge portion of NY State.
I once read that Iowa has the smallest amount of undeveloped land among the 50 states. Not because of urban development, but because it is so intensely farmed. The soil is so rich there that economics dictated the land would not be left in its natural state. IA also has very few state parks, state forest land and preserves when compared to other states, for the same reason.
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But you're right that the dialect in most of Connecticut is a bit closer to "General American English" (and the speech of most of the West). However, there are differences if you listen for them - most people in CT pronounce words like cot/caught, don/dawn differently, whereas many Californians pronounce them the same. Also, some people in CT (like in the rest of New England) will pronounce words like "man" and "ham" almost like "mee-an" and "hee-am," which is very different from how they're pronounced in California or even neighboring New York. With a careful ear, you'll also hear a difference in the "ow" vowel in words like "down" and "about" compared to their common Californian pronunciation.
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey
