New York Accent a History

sociolinguistics,

1. The New York Accent Antoinette Cavaliere Sociolinguistics of English

2. History of the Iconic New York Accent What has become the identifying linguistic marker for a person born and raised in New York, began at the founding of New York by the Dutch in the 1600’s and has evolved as immigrants arrived and assimilated their many languages and cultures into New York City.

3. Identifying Markers The New York accent can be recognized by a few characteristics : The dropping of ”r's” at the end of words like British English An extremely drawn out way of pronouncing words like "bought" or "caught" ("bawuht" and "cawuht") --even more so than the British . " ar" words like "cart" and "hard" are often pronounced with a rounded vowel, almost like "court" and " horde” There are also a few variations on the accent based on location or ethnicity:
 Jewish speakers in Brooklyn have an accent slightly similar to that of East London (not surprising, since both areas have large Yiddish populations) --the dipthongs tend to be very drawn out--"royt" for "right," "dye" for "day," etc . In some areas ( especially in Brooklyn & Staten Island), there is still a residual influence from when New York was controlled by the Dutch, so that the word "bad" almost rhymes with the word "bed".


4. Dutch Influence New York English began to develop after the British took possession of the Dutch colony of Nieuw Amsterdam in 1664, leading to the Dutch quickly becoming speakers of English. Dutch left a strong phonetic substrate, however, which sets Brooklyn speech apart from other northern and New York dialects.

5. Linguistic Features Main features deriving from the Dutch influence : -interdentals become t,d . For instance, them, these, that become: dem, dese, dat (since Dutch has no interdentals). --er => [schwa + y]  thirty purple birds,  thirty third street  = uh in final position  were =wuh -- [oi] => [er] oil, oyster 

6. British Influence Though the origins of New York City English are very diverse, William Labov claims that the vocalization and subsequent loss of (r) was copied from the prestigious London pronunciation, and so it started among the upper classes in New York and later spread to the lower socioeconomic classes who adopted the vocalization to associate with the upper class pronunciation.

7. Linguistic Features Main features deriving from British English non-rhotic /r/, in other words /r/ which is not pronounced appearance of /r/ where it does not belong, which is called the "intrusive" /r / “saw” to “sawr” glottal stop, which is found more typically in some dialects of British English, appears in New York City speech, and is more common there than in any other American dialect (Gordon 289). It is heard, for example, in the pronunciation of bottle, where /t/ is replaced by the glottal sound, marked as [ʔ] (Gordon 289)

8. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY Like most people growing up in Brooklyn, I never thought anything of the fact that I dropped “r’s” at the end of words, or pronounced dog “dawg”. In movies, on television and in books, the New York accent was everywhere. It was something to be proud of, after all some of the greatest literary talent of the 20 th century came from Brooklyn. Just read Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller or Carl Sagan to name a few. I could hear the accent on television on reruns of The Honeymooners and The Odd Couple, All In The Family and Barney Miller. On NYPD Blue and more recently Nurse Jackie. It wasn’t until I began working in Manhattan that I came to realize that the Brooklyn accent was associated with a stereotype of a low socioeconomic and educational status.

9. What does Brooklynese sound like? Hey, I was just calling to see how you were doing. Things are pretty good here. Wish you were here. Love ya, honey. Take care now. Bye, Male, Brooklyn accent, phone, message,

10. Brooklynese in Film In searching for a representation of the Brooklyn accent in film, I have been hard pressed to find any that does not represent the speaker as a blue collar/non college educated/non criminal person. I will however post a clip from one of my favorite films, Moonstruck, showing actor D anny Aiello who was born and raised in New York City and speaks with an authentic New York accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mwg2mdDEopQ

11. William Labov on “Brooklynese” William Labov is an American sociolinguist who has written extensively about the various accents in American English. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine in 2005, Labov stated that “The fact is—but don’t write this, because it will enrage people—Brooklynese is exactly the same whether it’s spoken in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island or in Brooklyn. Or the Lower East Side.” The city’s dialect, he said, is much more indicative of one’s social status than of one’s neighborhood. “Although no one wants to admit this,” he added, “because we’re supposed to live in a classless society.” “ Labov explained his contention that the city’s dropped “r” has its origins in posh British speech: when F.D.R. dropped his “rds. (“The only thing we have to feah is feah itself”) and Katharine Hepburn dropped hers (“My, she was yah”), it sounded upper class.

12. William Labov Department Store Study Hypothesis: “salespeople in the highest ranked store will have the highest values of (r); those in the middle ranked store will have intermediate values of (r); and those in the lowest ranked store will show the lowest values”. (Labov 2006: 42). Method: He decided to do his studies in three New York department stores which could be easily differentiated by their different social status and social stratification of their clients: Highest -ranking: Saks Fifth Avenue Middle - ranking : Macy’s Lowest -ranking : Klein He elicited the answer :   » fourth floor ». Labov conducted 264 interviews; 68 in Saks, 125 in Macy’s and 71 in Kleins . The interviewing time was about 6.5 hours.

13. Results of Labov Study The results verified Labov ’ s hypothesis: Use of [r] corresponded to higher class of store. use of [r] increases in careful speech . Highest-ranking: Saks Fifth Avenue Middle- ranking : Macys Lowest-ranking : Klein Explanation : There is a social component in the /r/ restriction in New York City. In spite of their low income , Saks workers considered themselves upper - middle class. New Yorkers did not like the way they spoke ; « linguistic self- hatred ».

14. Stigma of the Brooklyn Accent In doing the research on this paper I thought it would be interesting to interview friends and neighbors on their feelings about having a Brooklyn accent and if they felt it had ever affected their being able to get a job or promotion. I had this situation occur several years ago when I was working for a large event planning company as an assistant event planner. I was told that though I worked harder than my colleague she was being offered a promotion rather than me. When I asked why, I was given a trivial reason, but after continually pressing for a legitimate response I was told that my accent was “cute” and “Brooklyn” but not professional enough for the position.

15. Stigma of the Brooklyn Accent Of the 5 people interviewed, only 1 felt that his accent had never been a factor in his ability to obtain a job or promotion. The remaining 4 all stated they felt they had been unjustly stereotyped due to the way they spoke. Interestingly the 1 who had never faced any bias due to his Brooklyn accent worked in construction, the remaining 4 all worked in Manhattan in various white collar jobs such as in banking and marketing. The 4 who worked in white collar jobs all said they are conscious of their accents and when at work try to speak without it.

16. The Future of the Brooklyn Accent An interesting factor associated with the dislike of the Brooklyn accent is that, although it is the most recognized accent of one of the largest and most powerful cities in the world, it is seen as a speech pattern of low prestige and low socioeconomic status. We can see this misrepresentation on television, film and in the lives of those who live and work in the city. Does this mean the Brooklyn accent will fade away?

17. Alive and Well in NYC New Brooklynites include transplants from other parts of the US and immigrants from countries all over the world. They have begun to influence the New York accent. However, working with students that range in ages from 5 – 18 has proven that B rooklynese is alive and well and being used by both new and older generations of New Yorkers from every part of the world. There are changes of course, such as the loss of final “ oi ” to “ er ” (oil to “ erl ”) which is not as prevalent as it was when Jackie Gleason was sending Alice to the moon, but the dropping of the final “r” is still regularly heard especially in informal social situations and at home.

18. Bibliography Gordon, Matthew J. New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: phonology . A Handbook of Varieties of English. A Multimedia Reference Tool. Eds. Edgar W. Schneider, et al. Volume 1. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter , 2004. 282-289 . http:// www.newyorker.com /archive/2005/11/14/051114ta_talk_seabrook#ixzz1vzz41mkF Newman, Michael. New York Tawk (New York City, NY). American Voices. How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Eds. Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 82-87 . William Labov, "The Position of New York City in American Dialects," presented at the National Council of Teachers of English 1977 Annual Convention session on The English of New York. William Labov, The Social Stratification of English in New York City (Washington, D.C.: Center for Ap -plied Linguistics, 1966), p. 486.