New York Accent

A New York accent, or New York dialect, is one of the more recognizable American accents. It refers to the greater New York metropolitan area (including the 5 boroughs, Long Island, Westchester County, the lower Hudson Valley & surrounding parts of Connecticut & New Jersey). Upstate New Yorkers have their own accents which are entirely different from the stereotypical "New York" accent.

Individuals with a trained ear can differentiate between the accents of each of the boroughs (or the surrounding areas), though all are very similar. Generally, Manhattanites do not have a common accent, as many do not originate from the New York metropolitan area.

A slightly lesser percentage of Generation Y-ers speak with a full-blown New York accent, compared with those of prior generations. The accent of Generation Y-ers tends to be less severe than those of their elders, sometimes practically undetectable, with the exception of certain words.

Notable differences between Standard American English & New York dialect include:

1. Nonstandard pronunciation:
♦ "AW" sound is prolonged (talk/tawwk)
♦ Hard "G" sound (Long Island/Lawnguyland)
♦ Dropping final consonants (want/wan)
♦ Dropping "R" sounds (morning/mawning)
♦ Adding "R" sounds (idea/idear, soda/soder)
♦ Dropping "G" endings (calling/callin)
♦ Substituting "D", "T" for "TH" (those/doze, three/tree)

2. Nonstandard resonance, resulting in a heavy sound.

3. Generally fast rate of speech.

4. Hypernasality.

A New York Accent is how working class whites in the city speak. It involves dropping r's off words that have them (father-fatha) and adding them to words that don't (soda-sodar). Changing and adding "oi" in words (oil-erl). Pronouncing the "th" as a "d" or "t" (the-da)(through-trew). There are three major New York accents:Italian, Irish, and Jewish. Blacks speak differently that would not be considered a New York accent. The New York Accent is more prominant in older people and is being lost in younger people as they imitate fake upper class whites from the midwest that they see on tv.

Myth

The way Native New Yorkers pronounce there words. Manhatten residents do not have the accent because most are not from NY

i came up with a way to make any word sound like a New Yorker would say it.
first take the word 'oar', and remove the 'r' so u are left with the 'oa' sound
then take that sound and add it to the vowels A and O.

such as: long, walk, coffee, dawn, York, u get the picture.
some people have more extreme accents than others; it varies.

What white upper-middle class kids from the New York suburbs wish they had, but dont, and often try to fake.

What sheltered kids from the 'burbs think all people from Brooklyn have, even though nobody talks like that anymore.