Which American accent prevails in New York?
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][2]Several other common names exist for the accent based on specific location, such as a Bronx accent, Long Island accent, Brooklyn accent, or North Jersey accent.[3] The following is an overview of the phonological structures and variations within the accent.
The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans who were raised in New York City and much of its metropolitan area including the lower Hudson Valley, Long Island, and in northeastern New Jersey. It is often considered to be one of the most recognizable accents within American English (Newman 2005).
The English spoken in northern New Jersey, although often confused with that of New York City, is (outside a few cities very close to New York) actually different from the New York City dialect. Similarly, a variety of unrelated dialects are spoken in those parts of New York State outside the metropolitan area.
Macrosocial extensions
Geographic factors
The New York dialect is closely confined to the geographically small but densely populated New York City Dialect Region, which consists of the city's five Boroughs, the western half of Long Island, and the cities of Newark and Jersey City in New Jersey. However, the terms “New York English” and “New York dialect” are, strictly speaking, misnomers. The classic New York 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, although the same "White Flight" that reduced their numbers in the city has led to expansion of the dialect in the outlying areas to which they moved. Now, the most secure strongholds of the New York dialect are arguably the suburban areas of Nassau County, western Suffolk County, Westchester County, northeastern and southwestern Queens, and Staten Island, although some strong New York dialect speakers remain in urban sections of Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and even Manhattan. It is often claimed that the dialect varies by neighborhood or borough. In particular, many 20th-century New Yorkers have claimed to perceive a difference between Brooklyn and Bronx accents, with a Brooklyn accent being "heavier". This may be true, although no published study has found any feature that varies in this way beyond local names. Impressions that the dialect changes may also be a byproduct of class and/or ethnic variation.
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