The New York accent is characterized by three main features: (1) a faster rate of speech and more volume due to the large city environment, (2) placement of sounds further forward in the mouth and nose, sometimes resulting in nasality, and (3) frequent rising intonation within and at the end of phrases. Vowels such as the broad A and short O are very forward and nasal. Consonants may involve softer or dropped R sounds and dentalized D/T sounds. Sample dialects include Nicki Minaj, Joe Pesci, and Cardi B.
The New York accent is characterized by three main features: (1) a faster rate of speech and more volume due to the large city environment, (2) placement of sounds further forward in the mouth and nose, sometimes resulting in nasality, and (3) frequent rising intonation within and at the end of phrases. Vowels such as the broad A and short O are very forward and nasal. Consonants may involve softer or dropped R sounds and dentalized D/T sounds. Sample dialects include Nicki Minaj, Joe Pesci, and Cardi B.
The New York accent is characterized by three main features: (1) a faster rate of speech and more volume due to the large city environment, (2) placement of sounds further forward in the mouth and nose, sometimes resulting in nasality, and (3) frequent rising intonation within and at the end of phrases. Vowels such as the broad A and short O are very forward and nasal. Consonants may involve softer or dropped R sounds and dentalized D/T sounds. Sample dialects include Nicki Minaj, Joe Pesci, and Cardi B.
The New York accent is characterized by three main features: (1) a faster rate of speech and more volume due to the large city environment, (2) placement of sounds further forward in the mouth and nose, sometimes resulting in nasality, and (3) frequent rising intonation within and at the end of phrases. Vowels such as the broad A and short O are very forward and nasal. Consonants may involve softer or dropped R sounds and dentalized D/T sounds. Sample dialects include Nicki Minaj, Joe Pesci, and Cardi B.
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NEW YORK SOUNDS AND SPEECH PATTERNS
There are so many dialects / accents in the New York area, but the broad characteristics listed below give us a place to begin.
A large city requires more vocal presence, a faster rate of speech, probably more volume and that can result in some nasality.
Placement / Pitch / Intonation:
David Alan Stern in his dialect series describes the placement as if you have a wad of gum between the lower lip and the bottom teeth. o The lower jaw is an important part of this set of sounds The largest set of sounds will live further forward in your mouth, nose – almost from the middle of your mouth forward o this also helps with the rhythm and energy of the sound. o It can take on a bit of nasality, though there is little air going through the nose You may find the middle of your tongue stays bunched up towards the roof of the mouth, making a pocket for many sounds to begin and end. There can be lots of inflecting up with pitch, within a phrase or sentence or or even at the ends of sentences – possible due to the natural need to argue, debate, or simply have a large enough vocal presence in a large city.
VOWEL SOUNDS:
AW – as in New YORK, TALK, LAW, TALL = /ɔ/ or /ɔə/
There is a good deal of rounding on the AW sound with more tension than in General American
When a word ends in an R sound, sometimes an off-glide of AW-uh – /ɔə/ or /ʊə/
MORE FLOOR POUR
OO – as in TOO, YOU, DO SOON = /əʊ/ or /əu/
Start with a slight, unrounded on-glide and then get to the rounded sound of OO – uhOO
Front A – as in CAB, HAT, CASH, CAPITAL - = /æ/ or /eə/
Very nasal, very far front or tight, and can be lengthened Short O = as in STOP, HOT POSSIBLE, NOT, BRONX, DOLLAR, WATCH = /ɑ/ or /ɒ/ Very far forward, short and quite nasal
DIPHTHONGS:
Long I – as in I, TIME, MY, FLY = /ɒɪ / or /ʌɪ/
Can take on a rounded quality
Long O – as in HOME, FLOAT, SO = /ʌu/ or /ou/
This also has a good deal of rounding
OW – as in FLOWER, TOWER, TOWN, NOW = /aʊ/ or /au/
Further forward in the mouth
AIR – as in SQUARE, BEAR, HAIR, FLARE - /ɛə/ with no R coloring
CONSONANTS:
Rs are often softer or dropped if they come at the end of a word.
And for vowels that are followed by an R, there is a more open vowel sound, and a softer R sound: Harry / Mary Are Our More Inferiority postcard
ING endings – the final G can be dropped leaving only IN
Gettin’ Talkin’ Walkin’
Some New Yorkers may even add a K to final ING ending resulting in GettingK TalkingK WalkingK
D & T – the tongue tip will be less precise on T’s and D’s – called “dentalized” because the tongue tip moves more to the back of the top teeth.
H - You can drop a few H’s if they are followed by a liquid U as in the words: Humor – making it Yumor Huge – making it Yuge
Cardi B. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qTROr7cgCY
Alicia Keys on Big Boy TV. You can really hear her dentalized T’s and D’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep91hV3qnJQ
Jay Z – from Brooklyn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXl-0NNTQZU
Vampires vs. the Bronx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2yfp6oj2hw
My Cousin Vinnie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nGQLQF1b6I
Compiled with notes from Gillian Lane-Plescia’s “New York City Accents for Actors,” The International Dialect of English Archive, and Senior class of ’15, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
