There is great regional and local variation in American English, with each variety having its own special features. Interestingly, some varieties, such as the dialect spoken in New York City, are more widely recognized than others. Many unique features have been associated with the New York City dialect, although the variation in speech within the City is, of course, great.

This paper discusses characteristic features of the New York City dialect and some associated beliefs concerning these features. What are the phonological distinctions of the New York dialect? What stereotypical beliefs and status distinctions have been associated with it in other parts of the United States? Are these beliefs likely to change?

Unique, Stigmatized "Brooklynese"

T'ree little boids sittin' on a coib,
Eatin' doity woims and sayin' doity woids
(a putative poem of New York City speech) (Preston)

New York City is regarded as forming its own subregion in terms of dialect variation in the United States, although it is also part of the Northern dialect region (Gordon 282). In fact, the area lies between the Northern and Midland dialect regions, and so it shows influences of both dialects (Gordon 284). In addition, the dialect has been influenced by large-scale immigration (Newman 85). The nearby areas, such as New Jersey, have similar features in their dialects, but New York City is nevertheless widely recognized as a separate speech area (Preston).

New York City speech has a special reputation: it is one of the most widely recognized American dialects, along with the Southern dialect (Gordon 284). However, this is a questionable honor, as it stems from the fact that the dialect has been viewed in a very negative light in the past (Newman 83), and, according to Preston, still is. Even today, New York City is often regarded as a place where "the most incorrect English is spoken" in the United States (Preston).

For this reason, some New Yorkers may wish to avoid speaking the dialect outside New York City. While it is not uncommon that users of a particular dialect will find fault in their own speech (Newman 83), such doubts about their way of speaking may also reflect the common attitude elsewhere in the United States towards the New York dialect. In turn, such 'negative' attitudes of other Americans may be influenced by the stereotype sometimes associated with New Yorkers: Gordon describes the stereotypical features of New Yorkers as tough, uneducated and "street-smart" (284), and Preston as "brash, boorish, criminal" and even "violent". Thus, the stereotype is anything but pleasant, which shows in the attitudes of outsiders towards New York City speech.

Furthermore, sometimes New York City dialect is referred to as "Brooklynese", although Brooklyn does not have any "linguistic priority" over the other four boroughs in the area (Newman 85). This nickname was presumably given by outsiders. However, in a city of over eight million people the linguistic diversity is obviously substantial, and so the features described here as typical of New York City dialect, or "Brooklynese," are by no means found in the speech of all city dwellers.

Common Phonological Features

R-lessness and "Intrusive" /r/

One of the most common features of New York City speech, at least stereotypically, is the non-rhotic /r/, in other words /r/ which is not pronounced, similarly to dialects in eastern New England and southern England (Gordon 288). Thus, here is pronounced [hɪə] and cart [kɑət] (Gordon 288). However, /r/ is pronounced if it appears at the end of a word and is followed by a vowel, as in here in (Gordon 288).

In most other American dialects /r/ is obviously pronounced, and so it is not surprising that r-lessness has been treated as a "serious flaw" in the past (Newman 83), and a clear sign of working-class and lower-class speech (Gordon 288). The speech of a minority is easily stigmatized by outsiders, as is seen here. Perhaps for this reason, the pronunciation of /r/ is becoming more common among New Yorkers (Gordon 288).

Another feature connected to r-lessness is the appearance of /r/ where it does not belong, which is called the "intrusive" /r/ (Newman 83, Gordon 288). Newman provides two examples of this: the word law in the combination law and order is pronounced law-r-and order, and the word idea may become idear in speech (83). According to Gordon, these particular pronunciations are fairly common (288).

The aw Sound and the Short a Split

In more formal, linguistic terms, the aw sound is described as a raising of the vowel sound in words such as thought and cloth, thus producing sound combinations such as [oə] or [ʊə] (Gordon 286). The vowel therefore often becomes closer to /u/, as in pull or put, followed by a sound which resembles uh (Newman 84). Thus, combined with r-lessness, shore and sure are pronounced similarly, coffee is cu-uhfee and all is pronounced u-uhl (Newman 84). This feature is a sign of strong dialect use, and so is not heard widely in its "clearest" form (Newman 84). It is nevertheless a characteristic part of New York City dialect (Newman 84).

A feature called "the short a split" is related to the aw sound (Newman 84). Depending on the morphological, phonological and lexical environment of a word, the short a sound occurs as either /æ/ or /æə/ in speech (Gordon 285). For this reason, specifically in New York City, words such as cab and avenue are pronounced with /æə/, sometimes producing even ki-uhb and i-uhvenue, whereas the so-called “short a words” such as pat or cap, and function words such as can, retain /æ/ in their pronunciation (Newman 84) This is a rather complicated feature of the dialect, and, as Newman states, it is almost impossible for an outsider to learn (84).

The Glottal Stop and the Hard g Sound

The glottal stop, which is found more typically in some dialects of British English, appears in New York City speech, and is more common there than in any other American dialect (Gordon 289). It is heard, for example, in the pronunciation of bottle, where /t/ is replaced by the glottal sound, marked as [ʔ] (Gordon 289). This may be another influence of the Southern English dialect, and Cockney more specifically, in addition to r-lessness discussed above.

A more wide-spread, and stereotypical, feature of New York City speech is the hard g sound (Gordon 289). It appears after nasal sounds, for example, in the pronunciation of singer, which is pronounced similarly to finger (Wilson). This feature is also found in -ing endings, when -ing is pronounced [ŋg] instead of [ŋ] (Gordon 289). However, these sounds are often left out (Gordon 289), which produces forms such as havin.

'Toity Toid' for Thirty Third

The title above illustrates two more features which may also be described as typical of New York City dialect. First, a stereotypical feature is the vowel sound [ɜ], as in nurse, which becomes a diphthong [ɜɪ] in New York City speech (Gordon 286). Thus, thirty is pronounced `toity', and sometimes even verse and voice have similar pronunciations (Gordon 286). According to Gordon, this feature is highly stigmatized in the rest of the United States (287).

The second feature which the above title illustrates involves the first sounds in the words. The fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, the first of which appears in thirty third, are replaced by [ʈ] or [d], as in ‘toity toid’, and sometimes even [tθ] or [dð] (Gordon 288). This is often heard in New York City speech, but it is also found in many other dialects (Gordon 288).

The Status of the New York Dialect Today

As discussed at the beginning of this paper, the results of studies about the attitudes of outsiders towards New York City dialect in the United States are not promising. There is still a wide-spread belief in the minds of Americans that the way English is spoken in New York City is incorrect, although, as Preston points out, this is a myth. Some features of the dialect, r-lessness for example, do seem to be disappearing from the speech of New Yorkers (Gordon 288), and it is easy to see a link between this and the negative attitudes which the dialect evokes.

However, the situation may not be as bad as some might suggest. According to Newman, the dialect is alive and well in the various suburbs and neighborhoods of New York City, even if Manhattan is nowadays largely inhabited by "out-of-towners" who do not speak the dialect (85-86). Newman further observes (86) that today the dialect is spoken among all ethnicities. In addition, it has climbed up the social ladder, and is no longer regarded as a strictly working-class or lower-class speech; people from all social status classes may speak it. According to Newman it is now largely the older speakers who think they use incorrect English in New York City, undoubtedly due to the infamy they had to face in the past. Today the dialect is, nevertheless, a source of pride to many, and it is continually being shaped by its younger speakers, as are all dialects (Newman 86-87).

Thus, although New York City speech has a rather bad reputation within the U.S., it is still valued and cherished by its speakers. Perhaps it is precisely this infamy that has partly caused the dialect to be widely used and preserved among New Yorkers: they rebel, consciously or unconsciously, against the beliefs of the majority.

The New York Dialect Is Persistent, And Will Likely Endure

New York City speech is widely known in America, largely due to its infamy, but this does not hinder its use in New York. Many New Yorkers are proud of their unique dialect; it continues to be spoken widely in "the city", today even without strong class distinctions. The dialect has many curious phonological features which stand out when the dialect is compared to other American dialects. The fact that r is often not pronounced, glottal stops are used, short a sounds are split, and many other interesting features show how the dialect has evolved into a unique type of speech which reflects the New York speakers and their city's history.

New Yorkers with different backgrounds have continuously shaped their dialect according to their needs; this process of change will never stop as long as the dialect continues to be used. Conversely, it remains to be seen whether the negative attitudes of those from other parts of the United States towards New York City speech will change in the future, and whether New Yorkers will continue to cherish the traditional, unique features of their dialect.

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Works Cited

• Gordon, Matthew J. New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: phonology. A Handbook of Varieties of English. A Multimedia Reference Tool. Eds. Edgar W. Schneider, et al. Volume 1. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004. 282-289.
• Newman, Michael. New York Tawk (New York City, NY). American Voices. How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Eds. Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 82-87.
• Preston, Dennis R. Language Prejudice. ,Language Myth # 17. They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City. `Do You Speak American?'. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. Viewed 20 October 2007.
• Wilson, Kenneth G. Metropolitan New York City Regional Dialect. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Bartleby.com Great Books Online.