question for NYCers...

[KYYX4ever]

...I was just talking to one of my favorite teacher colleagues. He's originally from Brooklyn, and here in New Mexico is his home now. Anyway, he still has a [i]verrrry[/i] thick Brooklyn accent. I totally love the accent; I've always liked the NY (or other New England) accent.

My question is (and maybe it's a little silly): to you NYCers, do the rest of us have accents ? Besides those nice Southern accents, I mean. I'm wondering if you guys ever joke about the rest of us non-New Yorkers, thinking that we all sound silly. Or is it more that the rest of us have a LACK of an accent ?

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
I totally love the accent; I've always liked the NY (or other New England) accent.
[/quote]
Huh?! Those knuckledraggers aren't New Englanders!!! [}:)][;)]

[MARV]

LOL, you ALL have an accent! Just like we do [8)] Among other things, speech influences and colloquialisms are hugely regional and I personally don't find it anything to really joke about, at least not in a mean-spirited way - it pretty much is what it is. And accent denial is simply high arrogance. I never realized how much of a Brooklyn accent I had until I started to venture outside of Brooklyn as a teenager. Going to college and then working in the city exposed me to so many people from all over the country and the world plus all the travel I did growing up helped to shape my accent. Most are shocked when I tell them I grew up in Brooklyn. My (Brooklyn) accent is pretty much gone. Alot of people are even surprised I'm from New York. But my accent shift is largely a function of adaptation. Basically, [i]you don't go nowheah when you tawk like dis[/i]. Although to be perfectly forthright, given some alcoholic libation or a roomful of Brooklynites, the old speech patterns do come out [:p] Moral of the story? You can take the kid out of Brooklyn, but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the kid [8D]

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[KYYX4ever]

I know, and I still love those NY accents. They're hot.[:X]

I guess I was just wondering what WE sound like to YOU. Back in college, my best friend was from Connecticutt (Wallingford), and when he came up to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, he thought his own accent stuck out and he worked on getting rid of it. I thought that was kind of silly. To his mind, we all sounded like we had no accent at all. To me, it doesn't matter b/c we're a big melting pot and I like hearing different accents. But keep in mind that for amy years, major networks would only hire newscasters/ national anchors who had a flat accent, or lack of one.
Which always made me wonder: who is the judge of that ? I imagine that to a New Yorker, or a Southerner, those TV news anchors DID have accents---to them !

[SomebodySomewhere]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
<br>I guess I was just wondering what WE sound like to YOU. Back in college, my best friend was from Connecticutt (Wallingford), and when he came up to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, he thought his own accent stuck out and he worked on getting rid of it. I thought that was kind of silly.[/quote]

I did the same thing. Biggest mistake of my life. But then I was 12. And there was no guarantee that the remainder of puberty wouldn't have saved me the trouble.

Never been to New Mexico, so I don't know what people sound like there. I can pick up Minnesota accents and a wide variety of California ones (since I lived there for a while), but most of the Southern dialects just blend together. I don't know my Texas from my South Carolina.

There is something that I call a non-accent. That's pretty much what the newscasters all have.

[eight6]

The king of all english based accents...Newfie:

BTW, the accent isn't overdone, that's the way they really sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0

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[WolverineSyr]

We have our own bizarre flat accent up here.

When I lived in Boston some of my co-workers wrote "My Aunt Can't Drink Half & Half" When I read it aloud for them they all rolled on the floor.
I would pronounce it "My aant Kaaan't drink haff & haff."
They pronounced it very properly with some extra H's thrown in. We throw in a few extra A's.

Funny thing though - I lived in Sommerville, MA & they all sounded like they were straight out of Brooklyn.

[phillyidol]

I have the brooklyn curse! I always say "how ya doin" It just comes out. And fuhgettabouttit.

[manekineko]

KYYX, I can't answer your question, but I do have some experience with different accents from living all over the country. I'm from Wisconsin, where people smugly think they speak perfect English, and everyone else has an accent. Now that I haven't lived there for twenty years, I can tell you, Cheeseheads have an accent, too. They pronounce the short "o" funny, like they're smiling when they say "mom" or "hot", sounding like "mahm" or "haht". And they end their sentences with a rise in their voice, like they're asking a question, but they're not. And they talk really fast. (Of course I'm generalizing.) When I go back to WI people tell me I talk different. Well yeah, I haven't lived there for twenty years!

Here in Maine a lot of people have thick accents, especially out in the rural areas and "Downeast" (far eastern Maine). We're talking some serious abuse of the letter R. They'll delete the R in words like "lobstah", "chowdah", "rivah", or "gahdnah" (gardner). And they'll insert an R in words that end in an A, like "Augustar" (our capital) or "antennar". There are lots of crusty old salts who still say "You can't get they-ah from he-yah." And they pronounce the short "o" like "aw", so "Don" sounds exactly like "Dawn". But of course, in the cities people sound more homegenous.

I used to be able to pick out regional Midwest accents. Chicagoans sound different from Milwaukeeans, and northern Wisconsinites sound different from southern Wisconsinites.

So how's that for not answering your question? Time to go prepayah my dinnah.

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[KYYX4ever]

hey thanks for the input.[:)]
It has been pointed out that around here in New Mexico, everybody tends to have that rising inflection at the end of their sentences, too (like manekineko referred to), as if every sentence was a question. ([i]"...so I was at the store the other day? and they had a killer sale on kumquats ? And so I loaded up my cart with some of those kumquats ?..."[/i] Seriously !

[hexicon]

I always thought I spoke West Coast TV Neutral, but when I lived in DC my friends said I had a definite Left Coast Valley Girl tone! [:I]

Re rising inflection, my office brought in a trainer to coach staff on presntation skills. He said that a lot of women speak with a rising inflection and that it really undercuts their authority. I try not to do it (especially when a hearing is on-camera!) but it's a hard habit to break.

[hutter]

After a few years here, I'm losing my midwest accent and developing a subtle southern accent. As far as New Englanders go...they all sound the same to me, except for Marv and Blir. Neither have a noticable accent.

"He who is a friend to everyone is a friend to no one." - Queen Kristina
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[phillyidol]

Ask your Brooklyn friend to say water. We say water like thought, bought etc. Also we say whore like who-ah. That girls a fuckin who-ah. Fuhgettabouttit!

[marie3]

And what about the Lawng Eyeland accent?

[phillyidol]

Same thing. BTW Marie, I love your husbands car! I want one!