New York accent

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See also: New York English (disambiguation)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
non-rhoticity and t-voicing
Speech example
An example of a mostly non-rhotic male speaker with a background in
New Rochelle (Chuck Zito
).
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Speech example
An example of a mostly rhotic male speaker from Brooklyn (James S. Shapiro).
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Speech example
An example of a mostly rhotic male speaker from Queens (Art Spiegelman).
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The

Bronx accent", "Brooklyn accent", "Queens accent", "Long Island accent", and "North Jersey accent"; however, no research has demonstrated significant linguistic differences between these locations.[3]

The following is an overview of the phonological structures and variations within the accent.

Vowels

Pure vowels (Monophthongs)
English diaphoneme New York City realization Example words
/æ/ [æ] listenⓘ act, pal, trap
[ɛə~eə~ɪə] listenⓘ
 		bath, mad, pass
/ɑː/ [ɑ~ɑ̈~ɒ(ə)] listenⓘ blah, father
/ɒ/ [ɑ~ɑ̈] listenⓘ bother, lot, wasp
[ɔə~oə~ʊə] dog, loss, cloth
/ɔː/ all, bought, taught, saw
/ɛ/ [ɛ] dress, met, bread
/ə/ [ə] about, syrup, arena
/ɪ/ [ɪ~ɪ̈] hit, skim, tip
/iː/ [i~ɪi][4][5] beam, chic, fleet
/ʌ/ [ʌ̈] bus, flood
/ʊ/ [ʊ] book, put, should
/uː/ [u] or [ʊu~ɤʊ~ɤu][5] food, glue, new
Diphthongs
/aɪ/ [ɑɪ~ɒɪ~äɪ] listenⓘ ride, shine, try
[äɪ] listenⓘ bright, dice, pike
/aʊ/ [a̟ʊ~æʊ][6] now, ouch, scout
/eɪ/ [eɪ~ɛɪ] listenⓘ lake, paid, rein
/ɔɪ/ [ɔɪ~oɪ] listenⓘ boy, choice, moist
/oʊ/ [ɔʊ~ʌʊ] goat, oh, show
Vowels followed by /r/
/ɑːr/ [ɒə] listenⓘ
(rhotic: [ɒɹ~ɑɹ]; older: [ɑ̈ə]) 		barn, car, park
/ɪər/ [ɪə~iə] listenⓘ (rhotic: [ɪɹ~iɹ]) fear, peer, tier
/ɛər/ [ɛə~eə] (rhotic: [ɛɹ~eɹ]) bare, bear, there
/ɜːr/ [ɝ] listenⓘ (older: [əɪ]) burn, first, herd
[ɝ] or [ʌ(ː)~ʌə][7][8] her, were, stir
/ər/ [ə] (rhotic: [ɚ]) doctor, martyr, pervade
/ɔːr/ [ɔə~oɐ] (rhotic: [ɔɹ~oɹ]) hoarse, horse, poor
score, tour, war
/ʊər/
/jʊər/ [juə~juɐ] (rhotic: [juɹ])[9] cure, Europe, pure

Consonants

While the following consonantal features are central to the common stereotype of a "New York City accent", they are not entirely ubiquitous in New York City. By contrast, the vocalic (vowel) variations in pronunciation as described above are far more typical of New York City–area speakers than the consonantal features listed below, which carry a much greater stigma than do the dialect's vocalic variations:

  • labialized [ɹ̠ʷ] in New York City English, particularly when it appears as the first consonant in a syllable.[46]
Intrusive R in NYC examples
Examples of intrusive R in the speech of a male speaker from Brooklyn (Dr. Anthony Fauci).
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    • Non-rhoticity (or r-lessness): The traditional metropolitan New York accent is
      non-rhotic; in other words, the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. Thus, there is no [ɹ] in words like here [hɪə], butter [ˈbʌɾə], layer [ˈɫeɪ.ə], or park [pʰɒək] (with the vowel rounded due to the low-back chain shift, though [pʰɑ̈ək] for earlier twentieth-century speakers). However, modern New York City English is variably rhotic for the most part; in fact, the New York accent can vary between pronounced and silenced [ɹ] in similar phonetic environments, even in the same word when repeated.[47] Also, while a significant number drop r-coloring from the schwa /ə/ and most other vowels at least some of the time, as in butter, most current speakers retain r-coloring in the sequence /ɜːr/ (e.g., worker [ˈwɝkə]), as detailed in the previous section.[46] Non-rhotic speakers usually exhibit a linking R and frequently an intrusive R as well, like speakers of most other non-rhotic dialects.[48][49][50]
    • Rhoticity (or r-fulness): In more modern times, the post-vocalic /r/ has become more prominent, with many current New York City speakers using rhoticity to at least some degree. When Metro New Yorkers are more conscious of what they are saying, the /r/ typically becomes more evident in their speech. In terms of social stratification, the lower class of New York City tends to use rhoticity less than the middle and upper classes. Also, rhoticity is noticeably based on age since younger generations are more likely to pronounce /r/ in coda position.[51][49][50]
  • elided[54][55] or glottalized following /n/ in words like painting [ˈpʰeɪnɪŋ] and fountain [ˈfaʊnʔn̩]; glottalization, in particular, is reported to sometimes appear in a wider range of contexts in New York City speech than in other American dialects, appearing, for example, before syllabic /l/ (e.g., bottle [ˈbɑ̈ʔɫ̩]).[56][57] At the same time, before a pause, a released final stop is often more common than a glottal stop in New York City accents than in General American ones; for example, bat as [bæt̪] rather than [bæʔ].[58]
  • stop consonants, famously like [t] and [d], or affricates [tθ] and [dð].[62] Labov (1966) found this alternation to vary by class, with the non-fricative forms appearing more regularly in lower- and working-class speech. Unlike the reported changes with /r/, the variation with /θ/ and /ð/ appears to be stable.[50] Historical dialect documents suggest th-stopping probably originated from the massive influence of German, Italian, Irish, and Yiddish speakers who immigrated to the city starting in the mid–nineteenth century.[63]
  • Lubavitcher Jews but has also, at least in the past, been used in the speech of Italians,[64][65] and it has become a stereotype of the New York City accent in general.[66] Speakers with and without this feature may realize /ŋ/ as [n] in unstressed -ing endings.[61]
  • Reduction of /hj/ to /j/: Metro New Yorkers typically do not allow /h/ to precede /j/; this gives pronunciations like yuman /ˈjumən/ and yooge /judʒ/ for human and huge.[61]

Variability

Social and geographic variation

Despite common references to a "

boroughs, though this too is likely class- or ethnic-based (or perhaps even part of a larger trend spanning the whole city) rather than location-based.[68] The increasing extent of the cot–caught merger among these Queens natives has also appeared to be correlated with their majority foreign parentage.[69] A lowering of New York City's traditionally raised caught vowel is similarly taking place among younger residents of Manhattan's Lower East Side. This is seen most intensely among Western European (and Jewish) New Yorkers, fairly intensely among Latino and Asian New Yorkers, but not among African American New Yorkers. Therefore, this reverses the trend that was documented among Western European Lower East Siders in the twentieth century.[70]

In New Jersey

See also: New Jersey English

Though geographic differences are not a primary factor in the internal variation of features within the dialect, the prevalence of the dialect's features as a whole does vary within the metropolitan area based on distance from the city proper, notably in

Jersey City, may be non-rhotic like the city itself. Outside of these cities, however, the New York metropolitan speech of New Jersey is nowadays fully rhotic, so the phrase "over there" might be pronounced "ovah deah" [ɔʊvə ˈd̪ɛə] by a native of Newark but "over dare" [ɔʊvɚ ˈd̪ɛɚ] by a native of Elizabeth.[72]

Ethnic variation

The classic New York City dialect is centered on middle- and working-class

Dutch and English followed in the nineteenth century by the Irish and Western Europeans (typically of French, German, and Scandinavian descent) settling. Over time, these collective influences combined to give New York City its distinctive traditional accent;[65] William Labov argued that Irish New Yorkers, in particular, contributed the accent's most stigmatized features.[73]

The many

Italian American New Yorkers were more likely than other groups to use the closest variants of /æ/ (meaning towards [ɪə]).[74]
Still, Labov argues that these differences are relatively minor, more of degree than kind. All noted Euro-American groups share the relevant features.

One area revealing robustly unique patterns is New York City English among

Yiddish grammatical contact features, such as topicalizations of direct objects (e.g., constructions such as Esther, she saw! or A dozen knishes, you bought!), and the general replacement of /ŋ/ with /ŋɡ/.[66][61] There is also substantial use of Yiddish and particularly Hebrew
words.

African American New Yorkers typically speak a New York variant of

voiceless consonants but [ɑːɪ] elsewhere.[77] Asian American New Yorkers are not shown by studies to have any phonetic features that are overwhelmingly distinct.[78]

References

  1. ISBN 9781438431826
  2. ^ Labov (1966), p. 18
  3. ^ a b c Becker, Kara, and Newlin-Lukowicz, Luiza. "The Myth of the New York City Borough Accent: Evidence from Perception". Vol. 24.2. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics, 2018. ScholarlyCommons. Web. 10 Oct. 2020.
  4. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 232
  5. ^ a b Heggarty, Paul; et al., eds. (2013). "Accents of English from Around the World: New York City (trad.)". University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 233
  7. ^ a b Labov (1966), p. 29, 242–244, 316
  8. ^ a b Wells (1982), pp. 508 ff.
  9. ^ Newman, 2014, p. 52.
  10. ^ Labov (1966)
  11. ^ a b Gordon (2004), p. 286
  12. ^ Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2010). "Stability and Change Along a Dialect Boundary: The Low Vowels of Southeastern New England". American Dialect Society 95. p. 218
  13. ^ Newman, Michael New York City English Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter
  14. ^ a b Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 235–236
  15. ^ Wells 1982: 514–515
  16. ^ Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2010). "Stability and Change Along a Dialect Boundary: The Low Vowels of Southeastern New England". American Dialect Society 95. p. 84.
  17. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 182.
  18. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 173–174.
  19. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 173–174, 260–261.
  20. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 173–174, 238–239.
  21. ^ a b c Duncan (2016), pp. 1–2.
  22. ^ a b Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 173.
  23. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 238.
  24. ^ a b Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 178, 180.
  25. ^ a b Boberg (2008), p. 145.
  26. ^ Duncan (2016), pp. 1–2; Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 175–177.
  27. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 183.
  28. ^ Baker, Mielke & Archangeli (2008).
  29. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 181–182.
  30. ^ Boberg (2008), pp. 130, 136–137.
  31. ^ a b Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 82, 123, 177, 179.
  32. ^ Labov (2007), p. 359.
  33. ^ Labov (2007), p. 373.
  34. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 145, 54, 56, 234
  35. ^ a b c Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 234
  36. ^ Gordon (2004), pp. 285, 287
  37. ^ a b Gordon (2004), pp. 285, 288
  38. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:124)
  39. ^ Becker, Kara (August 13, 2014). "The social motivations of reversal: Raised BOUGHT in New York City English". Language in Society. 43 (4): 395–420.
  40. ^ Labov (1966), p. 215
  41. ^ Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 3." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. p. 51. "many New Yorkers who are heavy (r-0) users in words like contender, four, forth, hair, and her, are (r-1) users with NURSE."
  42. ^ Labov (1966), p. 216
  43. ^ Gordon (2004), pp. 286–287
  44. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 508–510
  45. ^ Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 3." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. p. 51.
  46. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 508
  47. ^ David Edwards (April 24, 2016). "Chuck Todd Says Bernie Knows It's Over: 'Did We Just Hear The Bernie Sanders Exit Interview?'". Crooks and Liars. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  48. ^ Labov (1966)
  49. ^ a b Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 3." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. pp. 47–51.
  50. ^ a b c Gordon (2004), p. 288
  51. S2CID 143934434
    .
  52. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 515–516
  53. ^ Hubbell, 1950, pp. 26, 28, 136.
  54. ^ Hubbell, 1950, p. 26.
  55. S2CID 170993449
    .
  56. ^ Gordon (2004), pp. 288–289
  57. ^ Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 3." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. p. 85.
  58. ^ Newman, 2004, p. 85.
  59. ^ Newman, Michael (2014). New York City English. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
  60. ^ a b Hubbell, Allan Forbes (1950). The pronunciation of English in New York City: consonants and vowels. King's Crown Press.
  61. ^ a b c d Gordon (2004), p. 289
  62. ^ Labov (1966:36–37)
  63. ^ Newman, 2004, pp. 138-142.
  64. ^ Hubbell, 1950, pp. 10–11.
  65. ^ a b Pangilinan, Noel. "challenge". nyc24.jrn.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  66. ^ a b Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 3." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. p. 86-87.
  67. ^ Gordon (2004), p. 284
  68. ^ Newman, Michael (2014). "Chapter 2." New York City English. Berlin/NY: Mouton DeGruyter. p. 18.
  69. ^ Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2010). "Stability and Change Along a Dialect Boundary: The Low Vowels of Southeastern New England". American Dialect Society 95. p. 218.
  70. ^ Becker, Kara (2010). "Regional dialect features on the Lower East Side of New York City: Sociophonetics, ethnicity, and identity". ProQuest LLC: UMI Dissertation Publishing. New York University. pp. 147, 222.
  71. ^ Labov (2007), p. 356
  72. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:47, 227)
  73. ^ Robert Siegel (March 12, 2005) [March 12, 1999]. "New Yawk Talk". NPR (Podcast). NPR. Event occurs at 4:54. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  74. ISBN 0-8122-1052-2
  75. ^
    ISBN 978-0-5216-1291-3
    .
  76. ^ Slomanson, Peter & Newman, Michael (2004), "Peer group identification and variation in New York Latino English laterals", English World-Wide, 25: (2) pp. 199–216.
  77. ^ Newman, 2014, pp. 72-3.
  78. ^ Newman, 2014, pp. 39, 85.

Bibliography

External links
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