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Why the classic Noo Yawk accent is fading away
NY Post ^ | February 6, 2010 | SHEILA McCLEAR

Posted on 02/07/2010 3:52:56 AM PST by Scanian

The first thing theatergoers will notice about the revival of "A View of the Bridge," Arthur Miller's 1950s drama about a working-class Italian-American family in Red Hook, is that the characters are speaking a different language: Brooklynese. You got a problem with that!?

You can hear the mellifluous — some might say grating — dialect being celebrated on Broadway by Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber. But that may be the only place. Linguists say features of the classic accent are heard less and less in the city itself, especially among the younger generation. Mocked and stereotyped, the long o's and w's have fallen out of favor, unless you're auditioning for a mob film.

Will old Noo Yawk become a museum piece, the subway token of language?

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: History; Local News; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: accents; brooklyn; dialects; globalism; language; nyc; speech; trends
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To: raccoonradio

C. J. Box writes current-day westerns about Wyoming, and he has funny stuff about how people from outside the state dress trying to look western and affect phoney western accents. Another dead giveaway is that they say cy-o-tee when everybody knows it’s coy-ote.


81 posted on 02/07/2010 6:46:58 PM PST by firebrand
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To: Clemenza

The folks from the pine barrens definitely talk different. They are old families and have an old NJ accent that I can’t capture—haven’t heard enough of it. The pine barren kids are identifiable by their absence from school as soon as the hunting season starts. Don’t call them pineys; in fact pine barrens is probably also politically incorrect now.


82 posted on 02/07/2010 6:55:16 PM PST by firebrand
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To: firebrand

A damn shame so much of the Pine Barrens have become suburbanized, or filled with Senior Citizen communities.


83 posted on 02/07/2010 7:03:22 PM PST by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Beaufort in SC and NC. It’s “Byoo-furt” in SC and “BO-fort” in NC

The difference there is the partial retention of the French pronunciation in NC and the Anglicization of the pronunciation in SC.
84 posted on 02/07/2010 7:03:41 PM PST by visualops (Freepin' on my Pre!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Ba-GO-ta, New Jersey
Kearney, New Jersey, pronounced Carney
Houston Street, NYC, pronounced house-ton

English county names and other place names, also family surnames, you just leave out half the syllables and you're fine

85 posted on 02/07/2010 7:03:59 PM PST by firebrand
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To: Clemenza

And they lost their excellent drinking water.


86 posted on 02/07/2010 7:05:27 PM PST by firebrand
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To: ClearBlueSky

My neighbor is originally from NYC, and even though she spent many years in NH she still has what I would fondly call a typical Jewish NY accent/manner of expression. I lived for several years in NY and picked up a bit of an accent, much has faded from living in the South for a long time though. I love talking to my neighbor, it’s such a pleasure to my ears to hear a NY accent and not a southern one for a change lol.


87 posted on 02/07/2010 7:10:00 PM PST by visualops (Freepin' on my Pre!)
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To: Clemenza

I love “El Eje Cafetero” myself, more for the climate than for the Spanish. If it weren’t for a chronic health problem I have, I’d look to retire in Armenia or Pereira. But because of the “broken US health system,(s/o)” I’ll be here for a while, anyway.

Mom was actually born in Asturias, which is near Galicia, and spent most of her childhood in Cuba. In Cuba, anybody like that is called a “galleguito” - they don’t seem to differentiate much.


88 posted on 02/07/2010 7:20:48 PM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

They all moved to Rio Rancho, NM.


89 posted on 02/07/2010 7:21:39 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: Scanian

Everybody is speaking the “black accent” now, even Obama and Hilary when it suits their needs (although neither of them does it very well, it’s funny when a black guy like Obama, who is actually much more like a nerdy white, tries to do the black lingo, he sounds ridiculous). It’s amusing (or maybe sickening, depending on your point of view) that white people feel the need to imitate the black lingo (as well as the black lifestyle) this seemed to first show itself on shows like Jerry Springer but now has become mainstream. America’s best weapon is not nuclear, it is exporting the black rap gangsta culture to the young people of foreign countries, making them a bunch of mindless idiots. If you want to bring down countries like Iran, North Korea, Cuba, China, etc, just inject the black gangsta rap culture into their young people and they will implode from within.


90 posted on 02/07/2010 7:39:57 PM PST by decisis
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To: manc; agere_contra
Thought that this might be of interest :-)

From the article:

(edit)


91 posted on 02/07/2010 9:33:34 PM PST by Stoat (Sarah Palin 2012: A Strong America Through Unapologetic Conservatism)
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To: decisis

Funny you bring that up...

Back in the ‘50’s, when rock-n-roll was becoming popular, there were certain preachers and “moralists” who warned that if white teenagers got involved in R&R, they would adopt the “negro” culture, and society would suffer by lowering it’s standards to that of the ghetto and the entire nation would become “negro-ized.”

They were right about the downward direction of society but I’d blame liberals and the welfare state - specifically LBJ and the “Great Society” - more than any type of music. Tastes come and go but dependency becomes a habit.


92 posted on 02/08/2010 3:40:11 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Stoat

yes I do .most certainly.

In Salfor when I was growing up the generation before me spoke with a more Lancashire accent and still do.
That is to say they would speak more things like up yonder and have more of a drawl.

Now I have a more of a salford /manc innner city accent and now the kids have more of a scouse accent where there’s a k is more pronounced.

As for the R, well in Manchester it is known that we do not pronounce them like other parts of the UK, for instance I manchesta , new orda.

When I had to live in Boston there were folks saying in Boston that I was getting a Boston accent when in fact we never said the R in the first place

that is about the best I can describe the change

In London or east London the pakisatni’s there have changed the accent to more of a pakistani cockney accent which is quite bizarre to how a Englishman cockney speaks


93 posted on 02/08/2010 6:06:58 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: Hardastarboard

the southern accent on a woman is the most sexiest accent in the world I think.

My wife is from Boston but I got her down here and hopefully soon she looses that Boston accent and gets that beautiful southern drawl


94 posted on 02/08/2010 6:10:18 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: discostu

agreed
there’s many areas now on local TV where they have brought down yankees and a southern accent is not heard.

not sure if they want the accent or because we’re not too liberal enough to cover the local news


95 posted on 02/08/2010 6:13:27 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: Stoat

also I think that accents are fading due to more and more folks moving on mass.

for instance in FL in the southern part there is hardly a southern accent due to the mass migration by yankees where as the part of FL I am in St Augustine is much more southern and so is the north part of the state, though some gated communities which popped up over the last 10 years have seen some migration into this area now too .

Sadly I say that as I hope this part of the state keeps it southern charm as best as it can and not become another south FL which is all manicured, , all the same look alike ,all houses are 5 ft from each other with no space or garden gated communities.


96 posted on 02/08/2010 6:30:56 AM PST by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: x

Ah. Well described; I think I know what you mean. Yes, some do speak that way. Interesting the subtle variations you can pick up even among people who speak “standard” English. In college I took a course that was sort of a combination of phonetics, linguistics, and the history of the English language. A few times the professor went around the room and had everyone pronounce a given word, such as “caught.” There must have been seven or eight distinct variations.


97 posted on 02/08/2010 10:43:40 AM PST by FelixFelicis (When can we *change* back? [Get yer bumper sticker at www.cafepress.com/deepright!])
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To: Scanian

I don’t care about a brooklyn accent, to me there is nothing funnier than a Yinzer Yuppie.

And those who know what I’m talking about agree.


98 posted on 02/08/2010 10:45:06 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

I thought all “Yinzer Yuppies” ended up in Brooklyn anyway (Park Slope, to be precise), as Squirrel Hill isn’t big enough to hold all of them (and the old Jewish families don’t want them around anyhow).


99 posted on 02/08/2010 11:25:41 AM PST by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; firebrand
In NJ, they say, “New-work”, but in DE, it’s “New-ARK.”

Natives of Newark, NJ, whether they be Philip Roth, Sarah Vaughn (RIP) or my father, say "Nork." The Delaware pronunciation is the closest to the real thing as both cities were named "New Ark" by the respective religious communities that founded them.

100 posted on 02/08/2010 11:28:56 AM PST by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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