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Not at all! Those words and pronunciations are SJ all the way. Don't forget the very lazy L's. I'm not really sure what that's all about. Having lived in both parts of the state, I kind of hate both accents. The NY accent sounds street while the Philly accent is just goofy.
Not at all! Those words and pronunciations are SJ all the way. Don't forget the very lazy L's. I'm not really sure what that's all about. Having lived in both parts of the state, I kind of hate both accents. The NY accent sounds street while the Philly accent is just goofy.
To me, south Jersey and PA have the same "accent". I went to college in PA for 4 years and whenever I listen to 101.5 I can tell exactly where the caller is from (CNJ/ NNJ vs SNJ) after they say one sentence.
I just have to add:
"draw" for "drawer"
"pool" for "pull"
"pellow" for "pillow"
"yellow" for "hello"
Cape May was a popular destination for folks from Virginia in the 1800s to escape the sultry summers at home, as there was regular ship service. The rest of the folks came from Philadelphia, but I believe they had to come by ship as well before the railroad was built. My grandmother's uncle from Virginia found an idyllic little town abot 15 miles north of Cape May in the 1930s, and in 1938, my grandmother bought a cottage there as well. A lot of people who spent their summers in Cape May County were from Virginia or other Southern states. Many of the seasonal workers came over from the southern part of Maryland, that part between DC and Fredricksburg, VA, which is, or was, almost deeep south. So it's no wonder that a Southern accent crept into Cape May County speech after all of those generations. This was back in the 1940's and 1950's. Everything was segregated, just like back home in Virginia. Did you know that Atlantic City is below the Mason Dixon Line, and that up until the late 1940's, all of the schools south of the line were segregated by law? Yes, South Jersey used to be a very Southern place.
ha! how could I forget? Those are some of my faves! (esp "get a shower")
also, words like "house", and "out" are pronounced without the "w" sound. It's hard to spell it phonetically, but - something like "haus" and "aut"
Yep. especially the word "yous" (plural of "you"). I always thought that was a bayonne/brooklyn type thing, but it's ubiquitous in south jersey.
so-
"Yous are gawna go aut tonight?"
My south jersey roomates used to bust me for saying "drawer":
for me, "drawer" is pronounced "draw", for them; "droor" (ryhmes with "door"). They're probably right on that one.
But whenever we'd have the classic "accent" argument, my position was always "turn on the TV, tune to any channel. Doens't matter which. Who do they sound like - you or I?"
But whenever we'd have the classic "accent" argument, my position was always "turn on the TV, tune to any channel. Doens't matter which. Who do they sound like - you or I?"
Old thread that was bumped...
First, the pronunciations some of the people were claiming on the first page are ones I have never heard of. It almost reminds me more of a stereotypical North Jersey/Long Island accent then anything down in South Jersey. With that said, South Jersey has the Philly accent that is also found throughout Eastern PA, Northern Delaware and Northern MD:
I have never heard and it is not a feature of the "Philly accent" to use almost any of the examples you and BergenCountyJohnny stated. No one says "cewd", "phewne", "chacklate", "iggles", "shauwer", etc.
cold = "kold" (one syllable, with a little emphasis on the 'd')
phone = fown (one syllable, long 'o', no emphasis on the 'n')
chocolate = chock-lit
shower = shau-er (hard 'r', no 'wuh' sound in the middle)
water = wood-er (hard 'r' sound on the end)
Second, any TV you turn on, barring local news/programming/locally placed show, they all speak with a slightly Midwestern (in particular Iowa) accent known as "General American" which sounds closer to "Philadelphia" then it does to "New York/Joisey":
First, the pronunciations some of the people were claiming on the first page are ones I have never heard of. It almost reminds me more of a stereotypical North Jersey/Long Island accent then anything down in South Jersey. With that said, South Jersey has the Philly accent that is also found throughout Eastern PA, Northern Delaware and Northern MD:
I have never heard and it is not a feature of the "Philly accent" to use almost any of the examples you and BergenCountyJohnny stated. No one says "cewd", "phewne", "chacklate", "iggles", "shauwer", etc.
cold = "kold" (one syllable, with a little emphasis on the 'd')
phone = fown (one syllable, long 'o', no emphasis on the 'n')
chocolate = chock-lit
shower = shau-er (hard 'r', no 'wuh' sound in the middle)
water = wood-er (hard 'r' sound on the end)
Second, any TV you turn on, barring local news/programming/locally placed show, they all speak with a slightly Midwestern (in particular Iowa) accent known as "General American" which sounds closer to "Philadelphia" then it does to "New York/Joisey":
I definitely notice phewne and iggles when I'm in SJ. I've found the stereotypical SJ/Philly accent is much more accurate than the "New Joisey" accent is in NNJ. Outside of the Gold Coast and parts of Bergen County, most of NNJ sounds generic, with a few exceptions, such as "wodder" rather than "water."
When I first moved to south NJ my kids were very young. As they grew I thought my son had a speach problem so he went to a specialist at school. The specialist said there was nothing wrong with his speech. My wife and I were baffled because he speech sounded very lazy and though something was wrong...we started to really listen to the accent around here however and relaized that he had just picked up the south Jersey accent and that was the reason the speech specialist said there was nothing wrong.
We are moving out of state and I try to correct both my son and doughters pronunciations because people are going to look at them like "wtf did you just say", lol. Some words in particular are cold, they say code. They pronounce water as wooder, etc. The accent down here tends remove the "L's" from words and speak in a more relaxed way. I went to a parent teacher conference and the teacher said she need to get my sons "foder". I didnt know what she meant until she came back with his "folder".
I used to hate southern accents but next to the south Jersey/Philly accent I have really started to like that southern accent a lot more.
I grew up in South Jersey with what I learned later was a severe South Jersey accent. I went to college in central NJ, and got bombarded with the horrible North Jersey/ NY accents, and mellowed out by the eastern PA (non-Philly) accents.
My dorm was called Wolfe, and my friends noticed I called it "Woof." I was like "yeah, woof, like the wild dawgs that live in the wuds."
I met people from a town in central NJ called Howell. If I said "He's my pal from Howell" you can be sure that "pal" and "Howell" rhymed exactly. I also carried my "tal" to the shower so I could dry off.
To us South Jerseyans, the word "folk" had a silent "L". So you might decorate with some "foke art." People in my parents' generation called their parents their "fokes." My neighbors drove a "Vokeswagon."
I worked at the Gap all through college, and I'd transfer back and forth depending on whether it was a break or college was in session. At the time, stone washed jeans were big. At my central NJ Gap, I was able to called them "stone washed" and talk about the pumice stones used in the process. When I got down to South Jersey, I went right back to "stewns" and "stewn-washed." Oh, and I didn't go back "down" to South Jersey, but more like "dailn" to Salth Jersey. (with Salth sounding more like "pal" not "salt.")
After 4 years in school, I had eliminated my accent, but then I got made fun of when I went home to visit. It's now years later, and if I'm down there for over an hour, I totally get it back.
Hmm so it seems like deep South Jersey has a separate accent than the Philly suburbs? And this accent sounds Southern in nature?
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not just South.
the woof hals at the mewn
