Question: I’m from the New York area but I speak standard “newscaster” American English. (When I travel and tell people where I’m from, I’m asked time and again, “Where’s your accent?”) But there’s one thing I don’t get. What’s the significance of spelling “New” like “Noo” when simulating the New York accent? To me, they sound the same. Folks from elsewhere, what’s your take on this? Do you perhaps say “nyew?”
A lot of it is just a putdown. But supposedly it's a harsher sound formed a little further back with the the tongue lower in the mouth. I don't know whether New Yorkers actually talk that way.