The New York and New Orleans accent sound the exact same. Don’t know why.
The story I heard is that boatloads of New York laborers were brought to New Orleans to work on the levees. Many stayed and left an effect on the local speech.
Thank you! That’s true about N.O and N.Y. When I went to Oklahoma once to visit a friend who worked for the FAA she called her work buddies over to hear me talk!( And I, by no means, sound like the natives with real ‘accents’. They argued that I was from N.Y., not N.O. They even tried to guess which neighborhood and which part! It cracked me up. As well traveled as they were they were surprised.
They really expected a southern ‘drawl’, like Georgia, I suppose.Nope- no one talks like that in N.O.
It’s the ‘Yat Speak’ here that is so much like Brooklyn-ese, maybe its a port thing? I don’t know, but the accent is celebrated here!
“ Dawlin, gimme a po-boy sammich and dress it with mynez. I gotta make my groceries, hawt, ersters are on sale!”
Sicilians, Irish, Germans, Ashkenazic Jews all settled the east wards, leading to the "Yat" accent, which is VERY different from that spoken by both the Creole and Anglo upper classes of New Orleans.