See also: New York English (disambiguation). pronounced as /notice/
The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio, film, and television.[1] Several other common names exist for the accent that associate it with more specific locations in the New York City area, such as Bronx accent, Brooklyn accent, Queens accent, Long Island accent, North Jersey accent, etc.; however, no research has demonstrated significant linguistic differences between these locations.
The following is an overview of the phonological structures and variations within the accent.
| Pure vowels (Monophthongs) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| English diaphoneme | New York City realization | Example words | |
| pronounced as //æ// | pronounced as /[æ]/ | act, pal, trap | |
| pronounced as /[ɛə~eə~ɪə]/ | bath, mad, pass | ||
| pronounced as //ɑː// | pronounced as /[ɑ~ɑ̈~ɒ(ə)]/ | blah, father | |
| pronounced as //ɒ// | pronounced as /[ɑ~ɑ̈]/ | bother, lot, wasp | |
| pronounced as /[ɔə~oə~ʊə]/ | dog, loss, cloth | ||
| pronounced as //ɔː// | all, bought, taught, saw | ||
| pronounced as //ɛ// | pronounced as /[ɛ]/ | dress, met, bread | |
| pronounced as //ə// | pronounced as /[ə]/ | about, syrup, arena | |
| pronounced as //ɪ// | pronounced as /[ɪ~ɪ̈]/ | hit, skim, tip | |
| pronounced as //iː// | pronounced as /[i~ɪi]/[2] | beam, chic, fleet | |
| pronounced as //ʌ// | [ʌ̈] | bus, flood | |
| pronounced as //ʊ// | pronounced as /[ʊ]/ | book, put, should | |
| pronounced as //uː// | pronounced as /[u]/ or pronounced as /[ʊu~ɤʊ~ɤu]/ | food, glue, new | |
| Diphthongs | |||
| pronounced as //aɪ// | pronounced as /[ɑɪ~ɒɪ~äɪ]/ | ride, shine, try | |
| pronounced as /[äɪ]/ | bright, dice, pike | ||
| pronounced as //aʊ// | pronounced as /[a̟ʊ~æʊ]/ | now, ouch, scout | |
| pronounced as //eɪ// | pronounced as /[eɪ~ɛɪ]/ | lake, paid, rein | |
| pronounced as //ɔɪ// | pronounced as /[ɔɪ~oɪ]/ | boy, choice, moist | |
| pronounced as //oʊ// | pronounced as /[ɔʊ~ʌʊ]/ | goat, oh, show | |
| Vowels followed by pronounced as //r// | |||
| pronounced as //ɑːr// | pronounced as /[ɒə]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[ɒɹ~ɑɹ]/; older: pronounced as /[ɑ̈ə]/) | barn, car, park | |
| pronounced as //ɪər// | pronounced as /[ɪə~iə]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[ɪɹ~iɹ]/) | fear, peer, tier | |
| pronounced as //ɛər// | pronounced as /[ɛə~eə]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[ɛɹ~eɹ]/) | bare, bear, there | |
| pronounced as //ɜːr// | pronounced as /[ɝ]/ (older: pronounced as /[əɪ]/) | burn, first, herd | |
| pronounced as /[ɝ]/ or pronounced as /[ʌ(ː)~ʌə]/ | her, were, stir | ||
| pronounced as //ər// | pronounced as /[ə]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[ɚ]/) | doctor, martyr, pervade | |
| pronounced as //ɔːr// | pronounced as /[ɔə~oɐ]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[ɔɹ~oɹ]/) | hoarse, horse, poor score, tour, war | |
| pronounced as //ʊər// | |||
| pronounced as //jʊər// | pronounced as /[juə~juɐ]/ (rhotic: pronounced as /[juɹ]/)[3] | cure, Europe, pure | |
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:
The consonant pronounced as //r//, when pronounced, is usually postalveolar pronounced as /[ɹ̠]/ and is often strongly labialized pronounced as /[ɹ̠ʷ]/ in New York City English, particularly when it appears as the first consonant in a syllable.
In more modern times, the post-vocalic pronounced as //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 pronounced as //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 pronounced as //r// in coda position.[6] [5]
As in many other dialects, the interdental fricatives pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð// are often realized as dental or alveolar stop consonants, famously like pronounced as /[t]/ and pronounced as /[d]/, or affricates pronounced as /[tθ]/ and pronounced as /[dð]/. 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 pronounced as //r//, the variation with pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð// appears to be stable. 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.[14]
Some speakers might replace pronounced as //ŋ// with the sequence pronounced as //ŋg// categorically or at least use pronounced as /[ŋg]/ as an optional variant of pronounced as //ŋ//, as stereotyped in the pronunciation spelling "Lawn Guyland" for "Long Island" (pronounced as /[ɫɔəŋˈɡɑɪɫənd]/ rather than the more General American pronounced as /[ɫɔŋˈäɪɫənd]/). This pronunciation occurs most strongly among Lubavitcher Jews but has also, at least in the past, been used in the speech of Italians,[15] and it has become a stereotype of the New York City accent in general.[16] Speakers with and without this feature may realize pronounced as //ŋ// as pronounced as /[n]/ in unstressed -ing endings.
Despite common references to a "Bronx accent", "Brooklyn accent", "Long Island accent", etc., which reflect a popular belief that different boroughs or neighborhoods of the New York metropolitan area have different accents, linguistic research fails to reveal any features that vary internally within the dialect due to specific geographic differences.[17] Impressions that the dialect varies geographically are likely a byproduct of class or ethnic variation, and even some of these assumptions are losing credibility in light of accent convergences among the current younger generations of various ethnic backgrounds.[17] Speakers from Queens born in the 1990s and later are showing a cot–caught merger more than in other 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.[18] The increasing extent of the cot–caught merger among these Queens natives has also appeared to be correlated with their majority foreign parentage.[19] 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.[20]
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 northeastern New Jersey. East of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers (closest to the city proper) and in Newark, the short-a split system is identical to that used in the city itself. West of the Hackensack but east of the Passaic, the New York City system's function word constraint is lost before nasal codas, and the open syllable constraint begins to vary in usage. West of both rivers (farthest from the city proper), a completely different short-a system is found. Furthermore, New York City's closest New Jersey neighbors, like Newark and 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" pronounced as /[ɔʊvə ˈd̪ɛə]/ by a native of Newark but "over dare" pronounced as /[ɔʊvɚ ˈd̪ɛɚ]/ by a native of Elizabeth.
The classic New York City dialect is centered on middle- and working-class European Americans, and this ethnic cluster now accounts for less than half of the city's population, within which there are degrees of ethnic variation. The variations of New York City English are a result of the waves of immigrants that have settled in the city, from the earliest settlement by the 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;[21] William Labov argued that Irish New Yorkers, in particular, contributed the accent's most stigmatized features.[22]
The many Eastern European Jewish and Italian immigrants who came, for the most part, until the immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 restricted Southern and Eastern European immigration further influenced the city's speech. Ongoing sociolinguistic research suggests that some differentiation between these last groups' speech may exist. For example, Labov found that Jewish American New Yorkers were more likely than other groups to use the closest variants of pronounced as //ɔ// (meaning towards pronounced as /[ʊə]/) and perhaps fully released final stops (for example, pronunciation of sent as pronounced as /[sɛnt]/ rather than the more General American pronounced as /[sɛnt̚]/ or pronounced as /[sɛnʔ]/), while Italian American New Yorkers were more likely than other groups to use the closest variants of pronounced as //æ// (meaning towards pronounced as /[ɪə]/).[23] 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 Orthodox Jews, overlapping with Yeshiva English, which can also exist outside of the New York City metropolitan area. Such patterns include certain 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 pronounced as //ŋ// with pronounced as //ŋɡ//.[16] There is also substantial use of Yiddish and particularly Hebrew words.
African American New Yorkers typically speak a New York variant of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) that shares the New York accent's raised pronounced as //ɔ// vowel.[24] Many Latino New Yorkers speak a distinctly local ethnolect, New York Latino English, characterized by a varying mix of New York City English and AAVE features, along with some Spanish contact features.[24] [25] Euro-American New Yorkers alone, particularly Anglo-Americans, have been traditionally documented as using a phonetic split of pronounced as //aɪ// as follows: pronounced as /[äɪ]/ before voiceless consonants but pronounced as /[ɑːɪ]/ elsewhere.[26] Asian American New Yorkers are not shown by studies to have any phonetic features that are overwhelmingly distinct.[27]