Why Do People in New Orleans Talk That Way?

Slate ^ | 9/8/2005 | Jesse Sheidlower

[Mike Bates]

If you've been listening to coverage of Katrina's devastation on the radio, you've no doubt heard the distinctive New Orleans accents of victims, officials, and rescue workers alike. Some of them speak with a familiar, Southern drawl; others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Why do people in New Orleans talk that way?

[Dick Vomer]

they're sober now...??

[CAWats]

(GASP!!!) RACIST!!! LOL

[Mike Bates]

They're lettin' Mary Landrieu do their talkin' for 'em.

[airborne]

This question, if asked about blacks, would be considered racist.

And since 80 % of New Orleans is black, one might conclude that it is, in fact, racist.

Or, at the very least, ignorant.

[GarySpFc]

I just heard one man on the Fox News say, "We want $20,000 f#@king now." I will let you guess the race.

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

Or, at the very least, ignorant.

Read the story.

[Banjoguy]

What kind of a question is that? Why do folks in the Carolina's speak the way they do> Why does anyone speak with a particular accent?

http://www.cofc.edu/~jacobsl/AmericanTongues.htm

[lonevoice]

This is news?

[Mike Bates]

That's not exactly what he said (I was watching also), but I think you got the sense of it.

[cardinal4]

A lot of Italians from New York migrated down there around the turn of the last century. Ironically settling in an area called the Irish Channel..

[Texasforever]

The Cajun accent does sound a lot like Brooklyn.

[Prince Caspian]

Because they can.

[Welsh Rabbit]

others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn.

They're from old neighborhoods that have the same ethnic (mainly Irish) makeup of many of the old neighborhoods of NYC and New Jersey and arrived in NO roughly at the same time. There's an explanation about this in the intro of the great novel A Confederacy of Dunces. I'd post it here, but I lent my copy out.

[daybreakcoming]

Oh come on now. It wasn't asked about "blacks". If you had ever been to NO, you would have known just what the poster was talking about. Having spent much time in New Orleans myself and on the phone with business people there, I always thought it was so odd that they spoke with a New Joisy accent.....or as someone else said Brooklyn? At any rate, there are all kinds of accents in south Louisiana.

[llevrok]

Maybe the writer hears differently?

Like a north eastern urban white liberal with faux superiority showing.

[johnny7]

Everyone sounds like 'The Waterboy'... and as if they're in the 'Bourbon Bowl'.

[Mike Bates]

Maybe the writer hears differently?

Funny, you mention that. Whenever I'm out of the Midwest, I'm amazed at all the people with accents.

[Ima Lurker]

I don't believe he is talking about the blacks in particular. He is right, a lot of people in New Orleans do sound like they are from Brooklyn. I really don't know where that comes from. A lot of people in the area obviously have a French accent too.

I was watching a re-run of Charlies Angels one day that supposedly took place in New Orleans. Everyone had a heavy southern accent and there was a car chase scene in the mountains. So much for research!

[Wallace T.]

Most American port cities are something of linguistic "islands" because of the large volume of immigrants, both foreign and domestic, who settle there. In the case of New Orleans, there were large numbers of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Italy, three of the five main ethnic groups in pre-World War II New York City. (Jews from Eastern Europe and Protestant descendants of British and Dutch settlers were the other two.) With much the same people as settled in New York residing in New Orleans, it is understandable that there would be common elements in the local dialect.