Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

How exactly do New Yorkers speak?



"Why don't you get outta my face and go @%&# yo'self!"

Of course clearly they're trying to lure women with the whole Sex in the City thing. Are they really going to teach women about fisting, rimming, three ways, and all the other topics they deal with?

"Okay, now any of youse girls do your homework? How many of youse got your boyfriend to rim or fist you last night?"

[Alyallen]

As a native New Yorker, born and raised, I can say that I have NO IDEA how a New Yorker's supposed to talk. I swear it's more a borough by borough thing.....I'm the Bronx and I don't quite sound like someone from Queens or Brooklyn.

The New Yorker accent is nonsense to me. Thanks TV and movies

But I'm sure others will disagree.

[rothkowitz]

Almost as bad as the "Talk like Hugh Grant" trend a whiles back.

Guess you could teach NY inflection perhaps??

Get outta here......pshaw,get otta herrrrreeeee....get outta here ya---!!!

[RACETRAITOR]

I think the Brooklyn accent is one of the most unsexy accents I've ever heard.

[R-Seoul]

Worse than someone ending every other sentence with the *canadian english* eh?

Now that's painful my friend.

[RACETRAITOR]

The "Canadian English" accent doesn't really exist outside of Atlantic Canada, same as the Brooklyn accent is something you need to grow up in Brooklyn to develop.

[Adventurer]

I think the Brooklyn accent is attractive. I also like some accents in the Boston area, and when it comes to the South I only like certain areas of the Appalachia area. When you say New York, we are talking about a large state. Upstate New Yorkers sometimes sound similar to people from say Toronto. A lot of the New Yorkers from New York City don't pronounce the letter r, I mean some don't. And some have a strong sound to the letter o. As far as saying youz that is also used in some parts of northern Ohio and not just New York. However, the movies about mafiosi makes people think it is exclusive to New York.

[bnrockin]

Love the north east accents, but the problem is, is that employers don't. Every year, NE'erners pay lots of money for lessons on how to get rid of their accent. Way to go Pagoda.

[Gatsby]

The New York (City) accent most definitely lives.

But most people who grow up in NYC don't have a clue they have an accent. One reason is that many New Yorkers rarely ever get out of the city. So, of course, they sound like everyone else. The other reason is that they simply don't hear it, when they do leave.

I grew up just outside of NYC and had a bit of an accent, which I realized after moving to other parts of the country, and attempted to expunge. One clue, however, that seems to give New Yorkers away is their pace and cadence. Most other parts of the country talk in a slower, more relaxed way. In the South, it is not just the accent, but the way they stretch out words, and the sometimes painfully slow way they talk that marks a local. Another clue is that expat New Yorkers do not generally spend all their time talking about sports, fishing and Jesus.

People from the rest of the country sometimes make broad generalizations about New York accents, assuming people are from New York based on slim evidence, and often getting it right, perhaps because there are just so many New Yorkers -- and so many New Yorkers who have escaped from New York.

However, not all of New York is NYC. Long Island is whole nother world. The south shore of Long Island has a distinctive accent that is not common on the north shore. Upstaters do not talk llike people from the City. Oddly, enough, there are some country locals up there who proudly sport a hick twang unlike anything anywhere else. Many Upstaters want very much not to be associated with the City, even to the point of rooting for the Boston Red Sox.

Another oddity I have encounter is that some people from New Hampshire can sound almost exactly like New Yorkers. The accent, which developed independently, bears a close resemblance. But there are far fewer folks from New Hampshire who have moved to other parts of the country.

So don't be too quick to assume someone is a New Yorker.

[Alyallen]

[Adventurer]

There isn't one New Yorker accent, but if you are saying there aren't certain stereotypical accents from New York then you are seriously mistaken. That is akin to saying there isn't a certain distinct accent in New Orleans that came largely about due to the mixture of the Italians and the Irish there. In New York, in some areas you had the mixture of the Jews, Irish, Italians, and English to form certain ways of speaking. That includes the speed of talking. Of course, there are things in common between many New Yorkers with other people from the East Coast. That goes without saying. Many areas have certain accents. Many people in New York can tell where some people from New York originally come from, but you can also get thrown off probably by people whose parents left that part of the country to live in the South. Accents are not as stationary as they used to be. Southern accents are also quite different from each other. A Texan and a South Carolinan sound quite different.
I prefer the letter somewhat. It seems softer and gentler to me.

[suby]

If you want a New York accent watch any CNN piece about Anna Nicole's trial. That judge is 100% New Yorker!

[yodanole]

You don't really discern New Yorkers strictly by their accent or pronunciation. But topics of conversation, and geographical or cultural references can be a dead giveaway.

[Adventurer]

[Pligganease]

I think what they mean is "Talk like an American at Pagoda!" They know that New York is a worldwide symbol for America, and that is what people want: to sound like an American.

However, if they said "Talk like an American at Pagoda," some people would set themselves on fire in front of the school. That, or cut their fingers off.