[lastchance]

I think the Brooklynese accent has to do with roots in the Irish Channel neighborhood. At least that is what I have learned from James Lee Burke's novels.

[TheMole]

This guy looks like he'll be talking with a Southron drawl any day now.

[Frankster]

The truth is that there are MANY Southern accents. People who are not from this region tend to think that there is only the drawl, but that is not the case at all. I am from Mobile, and our accent is very different from the north Alabama accent, which tends to be a bit nasal.

My father was from New Orleans, and all of my cousins have the regional accent. My wife says that I pick it up when I am around them.

The same ethnic groups who settled in the Northeast in the 1800's also settled in the coastal cities of the South. (Conventional history tends to ignore the fact that there was 19th century European immigration to all parts of the US, although most people went through the Atlantic ports.)

The Brooklyn-on-the-Bayou accent comes from the fact that many Irish, Italians, and Germans came to New Orleans during the 1840's and 50's, adding to the French, Spanish, and Anglo populations already present.

Older Mobilians often have an accent similar to that of New Orleans, eg, foist, for first, choich, for church, etc.

New Orleans also has a vocabulary all its own. A "banquette" is a sidewalk, the "neutral ground" is the median. One "goes by" "ya mama n 'em's ', perhaps on the way to "make groceries." New Orleanian pronunciations of French words are also unique, eg, "Chottis" for Chartres St.

I am happy to report that all of my "dawlin" cousins got out of the area before the storm. All are alive and well, although they have lost so much.

One positive outcome of the New Orleans diaspora is that there's gonna be some mighty fine cookin' all over the USA!

[linkinpunk]

My best friends are two brothers born and raised in Kenner, LA, right outside of NO.

Both of them (they are WHITE) talk as if they were born and raised on the streets of New York.

I used to think the first brother had a speech impediment, until I met brother number two and his wife.

Now I recognize the accent really fast.

[SuziQ]

others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Why do people in New Orleans talk that way?

Ever since I knew what a Brooklyn accent sounded like, I've always thought that's what the folks in NO sound like. Some folks on the MS Gulf Coast sound the same way.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Gen. Honere is a Cajun and he has lost most of the accent. Good thing the writer did not hear some colloquial table conversation over a platter of mud bugs to the west of NO, he would have been wondering for real.

I am retired oil field trash (smile when you say that) and have worked with Cajuns from Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado and many other places. They are some of the hardest working, friendliest and big hearted people I have ever known. Wife and I loved going down to Lafayette when Company sent me a couple of times for courses there.

[Rebelbase]

If you think the Cajuns talk funny, wait until Ophellia hits South Carolina and the press inteviews some of the Gullah Geechee folk.

[aculeus]

Southern drawl; others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn

This Noo Yawker was mightily amazed many years ago to hear NO natives speak pure Brooklynese.

One theory is that the NooYawk accent was actually copied from the NO accent ... coastal marine commercial intercourse and all that.

[pointsal]

Generations of East Coast nuns at the local Catholic schools.

[roaddog727]

Creole dialect