AMNY did a fun little interactive on the changing accents in the city. Click on the image above to listen to an accent from each of the boros.
The related article asks if anyone ever really spoke like those stereotypes anyway. As a third generation New Yawker old enough to remember my immigrant grandparents, I can say “Oh yes…they most certainly did!”
Grandpa Morris had the most distinct NY accent. He always asked us if we needed to use the “terlet” before a long trip. And sometimes he would come to visit us when we were “watchin’ the wrastlin” on TV. His son/my father still puts things in the “friggadaya”.
Most out of state people are surprised when I tell them I’m from NY. They say I don’t have an accent at all. But my husband, a Dublin native, likes to make fun of me. He says I “put the dawg in the drawa while having a cup of cawfee”.
My accent comes out more if I get angry, excited or drunk. Otherwise, I try to keep it in check.
2 Comments
LOL. No one can tell I’m from Noo Yawk, either, until ‘I get angry, excited or drunk.’ One giveaway though, is my heavy use of Yiddishisms, even though I’m not Jewish. I’m half Italian, so sometimes when I get hyper, I’m all like, “Ya schmuck, whassamatta for you?! That’s notta nice-a!” That makes people stare at me sometimes…. Oy. 🙂
Ha! Yiddish is a second language here in NY. You don’t have to be Jewish. The funniest thing was when my goyishe husband just got off the boat and was trying to speak Yiddish with his thick Dublin accent. “What a smuck!” Now his yiddish is better than mine.