Yeah, regional American accents are dying, unfortunately. I think they added a lot of color to dialog in the U.S. My own grandfather grew up in the Appalachians during the Great Depression and has to this day the thickest accent and the funniest idioms. But with each generation after him the accent has worn off more and more. When you go to NYC you kinda hope to run into these old school New Yorkers and have them turn and yell at you, "I'm walkin' here!"
You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
11–20 of 80 posts
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#12Best New York slang is saying, "lemme get a" when you order hot food at a bodega.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#13Yeah, regional American accents are dying, unfortunately. I think they added a lot of color to dialog in the U.S. My own grandfather grew up in the Appalachians during the Great Depression and has to this day the thickest accent and the funniest idioms. But with each generation after him the accent has worn off more and more. When you go to NYC you kinda hope to run into these old school New Yorkers and have them tur…
No way, there are all kinds of super next level evolutions of nyc accents going on, you just gotta go outside of the financial and commercial centers
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#14"Cooperative overlap" -- I didn't know that there was a term for this! I've lived in NYC for my entire life (with the exception of my undergraduate), and it's something I've always noticed about my conversations with "native" friends versus transplants and friends from out-of-state.
As a born and raised New Yorker, I have lived this concept my whole life, and never knew the name for it either.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#15I think you can look at the success of the Jerky Boys in the mid-90s to see the power of the New York accent. You have two caricatures brought to life, the mob-boss-talking Frank Rizzo and the Woody-Allen-clone Sol Rosenberg (plus a few others) making prank calls and you get a hit series. No way would that have worked if they were from Scranton or Palm Beach.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#16The most perplexing thing about New York English is the use of "on line" instead of "in line" when waiting for something.
I think it’s the same idea as being on a team, a board, a committee, etc, and not in one — on denotes membership.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#17Yeah, regional American accents are dying, unfortunately. I think they added a lot of color to dialog in the U.S. My own grandfather grew up in the Appalachians during the Great Depression and has to this day the thickest accent and the funniest idioms. But with each generation after him the accent has worn off more and more. When you go to NYC you kinda hope to run into these old school New Yorkers and have them tur…
No way, there are all kinds of super next level evolutions of nyc accents going on, you just gotta go outside of the financial and commercial centers
Well don’t leave us hangin
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
No way, there are all kinds of super next level evolutions of nyc accents going on, you just gotta go outside of the financial and commercial centers
Well don’t leave us hangin
Can’t speak to evolution, but you’ll hear the old school accent (real, not the “boids” cartoon version) anywhere that doesn’t get a lot of transplants. Bay ridge, Bensonhurst, corona, Astoria, midwood, Staten Island, etc.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#19Best New York slang is saying, "lemme get a" when you order hot food at a bodega.
I honestly had no idea that wasn’t universal. Never thought twice about it.
Re: You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English
#20Yeah, regional American accents are dying, unfortunately. I think they added a lot of color to dialog in the U.S. My own grandfather grew up in the Appalachians during the Great Depression and has to this day the thickest accent and the funniest idioms. But with each generation after him the accent has worn off more and more. When you go to NYC you kinda hope to run into these old school New Yorkers and have them tur…
Social pressure can play a role in the demise of regional accents.
As someone who grew up in Appalachia, there are certain biases that come with that accent. It's is one of the reasons some professionals from the region try very hard to "talk normally." There is even training you can undergo to lose your accent.
I learned early in my career that people make certain assumptions about you based on your accent. Over the years I have unconsciously developed a "public speaking accent" that is quite a bit different from how I normally talk. I've been told I sound generically Midwestern when traveling or giving a conference presentation (one person even said Canadian.) I didn't even realize I was doing it until one conference when someone pointed it out to me at a bar-track later in the evening.