Are there different New York accents?
There are some cities you can identify with just an accent, including New York. “What differentiates the accents is not geographic so much, especially nowadays, because people don’t stay put in one neighborhood their whole lives,” she says. “It’s ethnic.”
What happened to the New York accent?
Population change is one major factor of the New York accent’s decline, as the mixing of different people tends to neutralize accents. Why exactly hasn’t been figured out by linguists: “There’s a huge argument in the field as to whether it’s changed by contact with other people or by self-identity,” Newman says.
How did NY accent develop?
According to Prof Labov, the NY accent originates from London. “Back about 1800 all the major cities in the eastern seaboard of the United States began to copy the British pronunciation of not pronouncing the final ‘r’ as a consonant, saying ‘caah’ instead of ‘car’.
What is the New York accent like?
The New York accent, as it were, is both music and ideology, instantly recognizable as sound and almost physically palpable, too. Sometimes it’s about the liberal sprinkling of sounds and catchphrases, the salt and pepper on a conversation that actually becomes the dominant flavor. Sometimes it’s the fluent cursing.
Are there still Italian neighborhoods in New York?
Although boroughs like Brooklyn used to be filled with Italian neighborhoods, many people moved out of the area after several manufacturing plants were closed down. But small as they might be, Italian neighborhoods still exist. You may have to hop on the subway and leave the island of Manhattan, but they are there.
Are Boston and New York accents similar?
Originally Answered: Are New York and Boston accents really similar? Yes, the accents are quite different, but not totally different. They are both non-rhotic (they drop the rs at the end of and in the middle of the words), East Coast American accents.